


The Traveler's Champion

by Awesome_Pasta_Luv



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Based on a dream I had, F/M, M/M, Other, not quite a rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2020-01-06 23:33:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18398606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesome_Pasta_Luv/pseuds/Awesome_Pasta_Luv
Summary: The Cabal have invaded the city, the Traveler is in peril, the Light is gone and, so is the Vanguard. That was the world Sofie woke up to. Survival is now going to be her greatest challenge but will she make it?This story is probably going to deal with some heavy stuff. I feel that the experiences of the guardians as the story of the game portrays leaves a lot to work with in terms of survivors guilt and other sorts of trauma. This probably isn't something Bungie intended for people to explore but the guardians of Destiny make a great canvas to explore the seriousness of these issues. As such, there will be applicable warnings at the start of each chapter.Starts after Ghaul kicks the player off the ship. Will sort-of follow the story line of the game and it might not.





	1. In the End

**Author's Note:**

> I own Sofia McAlister, Isa Vess, Jace Arrang and Lalia Sorenson. Jack-21 belongs to my sister. Everyone else belongs to Bungie and the other appropriate parties.

Pain was coursing through her body as she struggled to remain standing upright. She’d woken up only a few moments ago and the world around her was now a disaster. Cabal legionaries stalked the streets and their war ships flew overhead, the city was in shambles. She didn’t have any light, there was nothing that would save her now if she made any sort of wrong move. Glancing up at the sky, fear struck her heart as she starred at the Traveler. It was glowing orange from the light of the machine that was attached to it. Without her light, she would die. Sucking in a ragged breath, she pushed off of the wall she’d been leaning against and began raggedly making her way down to one of the culverts that ran below her. Mentally, she begged whatever power that remained in the universe to keep her safe as she staggered and stumbled forward.   
It took forever to reach the entrance of the culvert and it was just coming into sight when the pain became too intense to walk. Groaning, she crumpled to the ground and tried to suck in a breath, but everything hurt, and she had no idea if she was going to survive at this point. Her ghost was gone. There was little chance that very many others had survived at this point and she was sure this was her end. Closing her eyes, she thought about her fireteam and her other friends and the vanguard and the vendors and her apartment and anything else she could think about until she heard a voice.

“Indy?” she whispered with what was sure to be her dying breath as the world began to turn black around her.  
“Sofie! Oh, I found you! Hang on!” called the voice of her ghost and the suddenly the pain was gone, and she felt less like she was dying.   
“You survived.” She whispered hoarsely as she reached out for the little floating ghost.  
“I did. It was terrifying. I’ve been looking for you for several days.” Her ghost replied as Sofie frowned.  
“I haven’t seen any other guardians at all.” He added as she sighed.   
“We won’t survive any longer than this if we don’t get out of here.” She replied finally as she shifted her gaze to the culvert.  
“Just remember that I can’t revive you.” He stated as he floated over to rest on Sofie’s shoulder.

Nothing more was said between the two of them as Sofia began to arduous trek forward into the world beyond the city. Making it to and through the culvert was easy, they were able to remain entirely undetected. Once on the other side, Sofia was less sure about how she planned to survive. She walked for what felt like hours before they came to ledge. Peering over the edge, she saw the ruined remains of a camp.

“They didn’t stand a chance.” Whispered her ghost as Sofia jumped down.   
“Scan them if you can. See if they can be identified.” She stated as she stepped around the bodies of her fallen fellow guardians.   
“Theres six of them; three warlocks, two titans and a hunter.” Indy mumbled as Sofia checked the utility crates for supplies.  
“Daniel Tarn, warlock. Kress Winlock, titan. Obsidian-5, warlock. Ophelia-9, hunter. Cressida Vos, warlock. Samuel Suun, titan.” Ghost read off the names as he found them and Sofie felt like a knife was stabbing her in the chest with every name. 

Biting back tears, she tried to convince herself that she wasn’t the last guardian alive. There had to be others out there somewhere. She couldn’t be the only one left but try as she might, she couldn’t push the thoughts away. Indy was slightly startled when he heard a broken sounding sob break through the air. Spinning around, he saw his oh-so-strong guardian on her knees sobbing. Floating over, he pushed himself up against her chest in an effort of console the woman. He’d only seen her cry once before. After several moments, Sofia stood back up and dried her eyes. Emerald green eyes shifted to the horizon and it seemed that a permanent frown was etched onto her face. Resuming her task, Sofie quickly gathered everything that she could onto one of the tables.

“Can you carry anything?” she asked as Indy floated around the table.  
“I can try.” He responded as he tried to transmat one of the bottles of water; which was successful.  
“Good. Carry as much of this as you can. I’ll take whatever is left.” Sofie stated as she pointed to the supplies of food.

So, they worked it out. Sofie’s armor was now totally useless. However, she refused to take any armor from the dead. Most of the weapons were broken beyond repair. The few that were salvable would provide the bare minimum in protection. Although she’d had Indy take care of the food, most of it had gone bad in the days since the attack and what Indy was holding would only last her a day or so. 

“Should we bury them?” Indy asked as Sofie turned back from the ammo she was putting together.   
“Yea. I should do that. Mark this spot for me. Maybe someday we’ll be able to make a memorial or something.” Sofie replied as she sighed. 

It took a little bit for Sofia to figure out how she was going to dig graves in the first place. Engineering wasn’t her strong suit, that was something her teammate Jace had been more adept with. With what little she had available, she cobbled together a makeshift shovel. It took most of the day for her to dig sufficient graves for her fellow guardians. She remembered a few of them. Cressida and Ophelia had been teammates on the same fireteam. She remembered going on a date once with Kress. Everything was going to be so much more different now without all of them. It took much less time to move the bodies in the graves and bury them.   
When the task was actually finished, Sofie felt strange. Being able to bury her fellow guardians had provided some small comfort but it wasn’t nearly enough. She was still angry at the Cabal for invading her home and killing her friends. She was angry that they were unable to make any sort of stand against the threat. She was angry for not having her light. The sun was setting now and Sofie retreated closer to the rockface as the darkness of night settled in. She had no idea if she would survive the night but as she tucked herself into a tiny crevice and pulled her ghost to her chest, she prayed that -there was some other power out there that would keep her alive for another night.   
The next morning, Sofia was left with a difficult choice. Eat something for breakfast or save what little she had for later; the latter being the option that she chose as she proceeded to depart from the camp. According to her ghost, they were headed in the direction of Twilight Gap and Sofie knew it was fairly far from the city so that became their focal point. Traveling without sufficient gear, weapons, ammo or food wasn’t a great idea under any circumstances and that became even more evident in the days that followed. On her first full day of traveling, she was attacked by a pack of Cabal war dogs. They were vicious beasts and she’d been panting pretty heavily after killing them all. 

“I thought you said you could heal me?” She asked as she sank to the ground in near exhaustion.  
“I did, didn’t I?” the ghost replied as he flew around her head.   
“Yea. I just don’t feel it. Like I feel like I won’t die right away but I’m still injured and sore.” She replied as she forced herself to stand up.

Maybe there wasn’t enough light left in her ghost to heal her entirely, she reasoned. He couldn’t have that much light to spare anyways. Keeping her thoughts to herself, Sofie kept moving forward. Day turned into night and then day again as the days began to blend together. She wasn’t sure how many days exactly that she’d been traveling when they reached the base of the mountains. She knew that there were several passes through the mountains, many of them running through Twilight Gap. Pausing for a moment, she turned and looked back in the direction she had come. Far beyond her was the wall to the last city, no longer safe. The Traveler was being held in some sort of energy field. Pain struck her chest as she turned away from the scene of devastation. As she began venturing forward, she knew that there was little chance that she’d ever return.   
Days and then weeks passed as Sofia pressed on through the cold mountain pass. Snow was on the ground and the farther they went, the thinner the air got. The armor she had on was badly damaged and did little to protect her from the blistering cold, day or night. By the time they reached the downward side of the mountains, she’d run out of food and had taken to packing the empty drinking containers full of snow to keep from running out of water. But after nearly a week of nibbling on stale bread, she wasn’t entirely sure she’d survive the rest of the trip; no matter how much healing her ghost did. 

“Is that a falcon?” Indy asked as Sofie stared blankly at the sky before shifting her gaze to the spot where Indy was looking.   
“Sure, looks like it. Not sure what a falcon would be doing up this high though.” Sofie stated as she returned her gaze back to the empty sky.   
“Maybe it’s the bird from your dream. Maybe we should follow him.” Indy stated as Sofie raised an eyebrow at the ghost’s shell.  
“Maybe he is. Maybe he isn’t. Either way, we’ve got to get out of these mountains or else there won’t be a guardian for you to take care of.” Sofie stated as she pushed herself up off of the ground and grabbed her bag up. 

There were a lot of things that Sofie didn’t really understand. Having bizarre dreams about the world around her that seem to come from the Traveler were one of them. She remembered Ikora talking about visions from the Traveler; though she’d always guessed that those were more of a warlock thing. Sofie hadn’t really planned to follow that bird down off of the mountain but Indy was so focused on the idea of following it that she decided that to just go along with it.   
Three more days followed them getting off of the mountain. Sofie had no food left and her armor was starting to become really lose. Finally, they made of out of the snow and as she rounded a ledge, she could see the dryer basin on the other side of the mountains. She’d been traveling forever, and she was so caught up with starring that she wasn’t paying attention and lost her footing on the path. In the next moment, she was falling down the edge of the cliff. She knew she screamed at some point. She wasn’t sure how long she was unconscious afterwards though.

“Didn’t know they just left Guardians laying around anymore.” Quipped a voice that Sofie was sure she’d never heard before.   
“She fell, and I’ve tried healing her, but she doesn’t seem to be waking up.” Replied her ghost as Sofie sucked in a breath.  
“Didn’t we discuss you talking to strangers?” Sofie mumbled as she forced her eyes open and looked up at her ghost.  
“Does he do that a lot?” the new voice asked again and Sofie blinked before looking up at the woman. 

The newcomer was a woman, darker skinned with a circular set of dot tattoos on her face. She was wearing a red and white poncho with a hood that covered her dark hair. There was a sniper rifle on her back and a shotgun in her hands. Sofie accepted her hand in effort to stand up. 

“So whats a lone guardian doing out here so far from your wall?” the woman asked and Sofie narrowed her eyes.  
“We don’t have a city anymore if you haven’t noticed.” Sofie grit out, her gaze becoming hard for a moment.  
“Trust me, I’ve heard.” The woman replied as she rocked back on her heels before looking up at the sky. 

There was a low rumbling in the distance and the woman frowned. 

“Alright everybody, lets head out. Think you can fly one of these?” she asked as Sofie grinned. 

There was a rush of activity as Sofie joined the group of people leaving the area. She learned that the woman she’d been talking to was named Suraya Hawthorn and that she was a tracker outside the city walls. Sofia thought it was pretty neat that there were people who lived outside of the wall, Indy on the other hand was perturbed at the idea that there were civilians who dared to live without the protection of the Guardians and the Vanguard.

“How could they even dare to survive outside of the wall.” Indy mumbled as Sofie sank into the pilot’s seat at the front of the jumpship.  
“Because that, my little ghost, is human nature. To survive in the darkest faces of adversity; it’s kind of what we do.” Sofie replied as she flipped the required switches for takeoff.  
“But if they die then it permanent!” cried her ghost as Sofia sighed.  
“Of course, it is. Death is a permanent thing, unless you’re chosen by the Traveler; and that’s still pretty rare. People die all the time. Only guardians live for a long time and that’s because we become insanely protective of our ghosts.” Sofie replied as her ghost made a noise akin to that of a huff.  
“It’s still strange. Don’t they need the Traveler?” he whispered as Sofie shrugged.  
“No one really needs the Traveler except for us. Guardians are the only ones who directly receive anything from the Traveler so we’re really the ones that need it. The civilians are indirect recipients of the Travelers gifts. As guardians, we serve and protect the civilians with our gifts.” Sofie replied as the engine of the jumpship roared to life.   
“You ready guardian?” came Hawthorne’s voice across the comms as Sofie gave a laugh.  
“Absolutely. Lead the way boss.” Sofie replied as she followed the other ships into the atmosphere. 

The flight from Twilight Gap to the Farm was uneventful and as they neared the landing zones, Sofie was starting to feel better about being lightless. While most Guardians lived and worked out of the Tower, her fireteam had lived in the city; working with civilians instead of acting like they were so high above them. In fact, now that she thought about it; her team had been normal in any capacity. Rather she’d been teammates with a Titan and a Warlock; each of them being masters of all their subclasses. Jace Arrang was an extremely talented warlock with a knack for void work. She was a master at using the void to infiltrating people’s minds and was often used in extracting information. Isa Vess was her Titan teammate and she was a terrifying woman. Sofie and Isa often ran the same subclasses, working off of each other and they were best friends.   
The feeling better quickly dissipated as the memories of her fireteam came flooding in. She hadn’t seen Jace since before she’d been called away on that solo mission. Isa had been helping evacuate the tower and then had made a stand with Commander Zavala in the courtyard. Sofie hadn’t seen or heard from either of them and now she wondered where they were and if they were still alive. She hadn’t heard anything from any of the Vanguard either, and that was unusual because Cayde was always bombarding her with random messages. 

“Speaking of Cayde, I’ve got a message incoming from his ghost.” Indy stated as Sofie raised an eyebrow.  
“Go ahead.” She stated as Indys eye began to blink.  
“Sof…Failsafe…Damn Vex…Sofie…Need help…” the incoming message was grabbled and broken and was way more static than it was words.   
“Not sure where to go with that but we’ll check it out if we ever get off world.” Sofie stated as she turned her gaze to the horizon where the sun was starting to set.   
“Welcome to the Farm, guardian.” Called Hawthorn as Sofie looked over at her and the buildings beyond. 

The Farm was little more than a handful of seriously dilapidated buildings set in the middle of a fairly sizeable clearing in the forest. One of the buildings had an old water wheel that was still moving and farther beyond that there was a larger field that had been set up as a soccer field. There were already quite a few people there and as Hawthorne was leading her towards one of the buildings, Sofie was suddenly assaulted by a voice she hadn’t heard in quite a while. 

“Guardian!” shouted a voice and Sofie felt her heart nearly jump out of her chest.  
“Lord Shaxx!” Sofie exclaimed before rushing over to the Crucible Master, leaving Hawthorne and her ghost behind.  
“It’s good to see you Sofia.” He boomed as Sofie giggled before she hugged him.  
“Sorry. It’s just been a while since I’ve seen anyone from the Tower.” She stated as she quickly stepped back and rubbed the back of her head.   
“It’s alright Sofia. It has not been easy here either.” Shaxx replied, his voice much quieter than it had been a moment before and Sofie let out a breath.

Then, from seemingly nowhere, Stallion, Shaxx’s ghost popped out from behind him and floated around Sofia’s head. Sofie giggled before her own ghost followed suit, starting a game of chase.

“Should have known you’d be here.” Hawthorne stated as Sofia glanced up at her.  
“Look. If you’re going to be here, you’re going to have to help out. Guardian or not, we’ve all got to chip in.” Hawthorne stated as she starred at Sofie, who had in turned raised another eyebrow at the statement.  
“Of course.” Was Sofie’s short reply as she nodded. 

The remaining daylight ran out and Sofia was relieved to finally be able to sleep. It had been quite a while since she had slept decently and though the next morning came way too soon, she felt more rested than she had in a long time. Soon enough, Sofie was moving around and proving that she was incredibly capable as a person and not just as a Guardian. The trauma of being a survivor was still there however because she didn’t eat very often. In fact, she didn’t fit into any of her old armor pieces and she’d gotten new parts from Hawthorne; she was still very thin.   
Three weeks passed by and Sofie could feel herself becoming restless. She was a hunter and while she may have lived or resided in the city, she had never been confined to someplace for so long. So, one afternoon, she decided that she was going to have herself a look at the fallen shard of the Traveler; a part of the Traveler that had been blown off when Ghaul had attacked. 

“Whats with you guardians and your fascination with the Traveler?” Hawthorne asked as Sofie was prepping the two guns she’d acquired for the trip.  
“Wouldn’t you want to see the mysterious thing that no one has been able to get close too?” Sofie asked as she pulled her hood over her head.  
“Nope. I know too many people who’ve gone into the Dark Forest and haven’t come back out.” She replied as Sofie shook her head.  
“I’ll be back before ya know it so try not to miss me too much.” Sofie stated as her ghost transmatted her up to her ship.

It was an incredibly short flight to the entrance of the forest and as she wandered up the stream that made the path, she wondered what she would find. She walked and walked for what seemed like several hours until they reached the top of a sort of hill.

“Wow. We’re so close now.” Sofie whispered as she starred at the broken edges of the Traveler.   
“And so are the Fallen.” Mumbled her ghost as Sofie caught sight of a few fallen dregs and vandals pacing around down at the bottom of the trail where she needed to go.

Careful as she could, Sofie crept down the hill making as little noise as possible until she slipped and fell, sliding part way down the trail and attracting the attention of the Fallen. The ensuing firefight cost her quite a bit of her ammo and she was getting worn out. Still she managed to kill the Fallen and move forward until they reached what looked like a large broken wall. 

“Is that the Traveler?” Sofie whispered as she starred at the wall.  
“Yes.” Her ghost chirped as he moved closer and Sofie watched him scan the wall.  
“No wonder theres so many Fallen around here” Indy cried as light began to pour out of the crack in the shard.  
“That shard has light in it.” Sofie gasped as Indy turned to her, a glowing ball of light.  
“You ready to have your light back?” he asked as Sofie took a step back.

The first time she had received the light, she’d been dead. She hadn’t felt the light then but now, it was painful. The force of the light pushed her to her knees, and she cried out as the light poured into her. It was burning and painful. The light was pushing against every nerve and fiber of her being and then it was gone. For a moment, she was unsure whether it had all been imagined.

“Looks like we’ve got company.” Mumbled Indy as Sofie shifted her gaze to the two Fallen Captains that were approaching from the entrance of the clearing.   
“I’m pretty sure I’ve got this.” Sofie mumbled, the cocky confident tone returning to her voice.

Sofie had always had a deep affinity for the void, often studying the void-works with Jace when they weren’t on missions. Of course, she was beyond proficient with the Gunslinger and Arc Strider as well, but she was both relieved and comforted when she felt the chill of the void begin creeping into her bones. Light and dark was a beautiful thing as Sofie charged up her Shadow shot and let a volley of arrows loose on her enemies. They didn’t die instantly, something that only came as a mild surprise to her as she readied another set of arrows and laughed when her arrows hit their mark, disintegrating the Captains into a shower of void sparks.

“It might sound bad but that never really gets old.” Sofie laughed as she stretched her arms over her head.  
“It really does sound bad.” Indy replied as Sofie shrugged; it didn’t really matter in the end.   
“We should head back to the Farm.” Indy stated as Sofie shrugged again.  
“OR… we could finally trace that transmission we got from Cayde.” Sofie suggested and her ghost spun on her with what could only be described as incredulity.  
“Track Cayde? If we track anyone, it should be the Commander or Ikora. Cayde is hardly fit to lead any sort of anything on the city.” Indy replied as Sofie frowned.

Sofie had been a guardian for a very, very long time and she’d known Cayde for just about as long. In fact, she’d been a Guardian longer than he had and she’d been one of the first light bearing individuals that he’d ever encountered. Her feelings for the Exo ran much deeper than she would ever let on to anyone, but she knew that Cayde could be a leader when it counted. Even so, Sofie remained silent and let Indy do most of the talking as they headed back to the Farm.  
The flight back to the Farm was silent save for Indy’s incessant chatter. She’d left him in control of the ship and when they landed, Sofie made a beeline for the supply area where the food was served up and kept. Using the light made her super hungry, something it had always done, and she hadn’t really eaten properly in a while. Just having the thought of food in her head made her stomach growl. It was loud enough to make her grimace, but Indy didn’t seem to hear it as he continued to chatter away. Once they landed, however, and Sofie was on the ground, she made a beeline for the food area.   
Shaxx saw her hurry past and a small amount of concern grew within him for the guardian. He knew that she hadn’t been eating much and he also knew that she was driving herself into the ground helping everyone. She’d started helping him train the civilians since she was more adept with on the ground fighting tactics. She was rather good with a bow and arrow as well and had taken to teaching anyone that wanted to learn. In fact, she was as good of a shot with her bow as Hawthorne was with her sniper rifle. He had yet to thank her for her help and as he watched her hurry past again, he decided that he would check on her.  
Later that night, when most of the Farm’s residence had gone to sleep; Shaxx decided that it was time to find the hunter. Leaving the frame in charge, Shaxx headed out to where Sofie’s jumpship was landed. He’d seen her head back that way earlier and he figured she was still there. Wandering up to the ship, he sent Stallion to check in with her ghost. He was surprised to see the door pop open after a few minutes. 

“Guardian? Are you alright?” Shaxx called out into the empty and silent ship.  
“She’s up in the cabin if you’d like to come up Lord Shaxx.” Stated Indy as he appeared at the top of the staircase where a very audible groan could be heard.

Moving forward and up the stairs, Shaxx was mildly surprised to see Sofia lounging across a mattress covered with a mass of blankets and surrounded by empty food containers. In her hands, she was holding a ramen cup and she had a bite hanging from her mouth as she starred at the Crucible Master in surprise. Quickly finishing her mouthful, she smiled at him.

“What brings you up to my little space?” she asked brightly as Shaxx raised an eyebrow though Sofie couldn’t see it.   
“Are you feeling alright Guardian?” He asked and Sofie frowned for a moment before smiling again.  
“I’m doing pretty good actually.” She replied as she returned to eating her meal, finishing the noodles in a matter of mere seconds.   
“What did you do, Sofia.” It was both a statement and a question that Shaxx was asking as Sofia starred at him.  
“That’s a very broad question because we both know I’ve done a lot of stuff and theres a lot of things I could have done.” Sofie replied as she sat upright on the mattress and crossed her legs.   
“If you want to know what I’ve been up too, you’ve gotta do something for me.” She stated bluntly as Shaxx crossed his arms. 

Hunters and their deals, often causing more trouble than was entirely necessary but Shaxx knew that whatever Sofia wanted out of him wouldn’t be too terribly bad because she was fairly rational and didn’t make deals out of grievances. Besides, he had an idea already of what exactly it was that she wanted in exchange for this information.

“And what would you want?” he asked, voice booming and Sofie smiled her famous smile and cocked her head to the side.  
“Its just us in here. Take the helmet off.” She stated and Shaxx sighed. 

He knew she would ask that. It was a source of entertainment for her in a way, to harass him about him taking it off. However, Sofia had been around since before the Battle at Twilight Gap and that was about as long as they’d known each other; which was longer than Shaxx had known most other people. 

“Not a word to anyone.” He growled as he pulled the helmet off and Sofia smiled even brighter.  
“Still ginger as ever I see.” She teased and without the helmet, she could see him flush slightly. 

Sofie had always found the Crucible Master to be rather attractive and as he stood before her, she was reminded of why. Shaxx was taller than most people, civilian and guardian alike, and in his full armor; well it was hard to miss him in a crowd. That was the guardian and Crucible Master that everyone knew. The man beneath the mask was fair skinned with shocking red hair and brilliant green eyes. And a scar, covering the left side of his face. It took him few steps and after a moment, he was sitting next to her on the mattress.

“You always have a way of making people be different, don’t you?” he asked as Sofie offered him some of the food.   
“I guess so. I’ve been around for a long time. You don’t get anywhere anymore without some form of charisma.” She stated as she shrugged her shoulders and looking down.  
“So, what exactly did you do that has you stealing food?” Shaxx asked as he accepted the bowl of food and cast a sidelong glance at the hunter sitting next to him.   
“I got my light back.” The response was so quiet that he wasn’t sure he heard her at first.  
“We went to have a look at the broken off part of the Traveler. Didn’t know what to expect but when we got there, there were so many Fallen swarming around. Not sure how we got through them all, but they were swarming around this section of the Traveler. I’ve never seen anything like that, you know. The Traveler was so warm, and it was pulsing; you could just feel the light there. So, anyways, Indy got really close to the shard and then all of this light was flowing out into him and then into me and I’ve never felt so much pain. It burned and it hurt, and I think I cried and maybe screamed. Then I had my light back.” It wasn’t a very long story but Shaxx listened as Sofie talked.   
“The only Light bearer left.” Shaxx stated as he finished his food and Sofie let out a humorless laugh.   
“It’s getting pretty late. We’ve gotta help Hawthorne tomorrow.” Indy stated as he floated around Sofie’s head, earning a glare from the blonde guardian.  
“He’s right you know. We should be going too.” Stallion stated as Sofie heaved a sigh. 

Shaxx was already standing and Sofie rose to meet him. She knew he had an interest in someone else and her heart lay elsewhere as well but there was a sudden striking fear of abandonment happening as she threw her arms around the hulking titan before her. Shaxx returned the hug, after all; they’d known each other for such a long time. Then Shaxx disappeared, helmet and all, out of the ship and Sofie felt scared.

“You’re not alone. Not really.” Indy whispered as Sofia laid back down on the mattress.   
“Arent I though?” she asked as Indy came to rest against her head.  
“I’m the only light-wielding guardian left. I’ve got to do something.” She added as a tear crept out of her eye.


	2. Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guardians have begun showing up at the Farm and someone has to step-up and lead when the Vanguard isn't there. However, reunions arent always pleasant and everyone deals with their trauma in their own way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are parts of this chapter that are kind of intense and some sensitive subjects that may be triggering to some readers. These topics may include but are not limited to: depression, thoughts of suicide and suicidal actions, loss of a spouse, loss of a child, and trauma of various kinds. 
> 
>  
> 
> Please reach out to someone, anyone, even me if you need to talk about anything thats talked about here.

The next morning came way too early in Sofie’s opinion as Indy roused her from her sleep. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she starred blearily at the blankets. She could feel the light pulling and pulsing under her skin and she heaved a sigh. She figured that having her light back would make her feel better but instead, she felt miserable and depressed. She’d never felt this alone. 

“You really shouldn’t think like that.” Indy stated as Sofie shook her head.   
“I’m trying not to. I just miss everyone.” She replied as Indy bumped her cheek in support. 

Nothing more was said as Sofia stood up from her mass of blankets and began moving around. Like every morning since she’d become a guardian, she began with stretches and a bit of yoga. She was about half way through her routine when she heard banging noises coming from the outside of the ship. Grabbing her hand cannon, she crept toward the hatch of the ship. Getting closer to the hatch, she could hear voices arguing and recognition began to set in as she crouched next to the hatch. Pushing the release button, shock and surprise flooded her system as she caught sight of who was standing near the ship.

“I told you she survived!” cried an incredibly familiar voice as Sofie was knocked off of her feet by an almost flying head of purple hair.   
“Jace? I can’t breathe.” Sofie groaned as she tired to pry her warlock teammate off of her.   
“Sorry. I’m just so relieve that we found you.” Jace cried as she loosened her hold and stood back up, pulling Sofie to her feet.  
“When did you guys get here?” Sofie asked as she turned and exchanged a hug with Isa while Jace beamed.   
“We arrived with a caravan last night. We fell asleep when we got here but Shaxx saw us this morning at the food area and told us that you were out here.” Isa replied as she returned the hug.  
“How long have you been here?” Isa asked as Sofie rocked back on her heels for a moment before she looked around them.  
“Not exactly sure. Maybe a month or so. I literally walked here from the city. I woke up and Indy found me near death. I fled the city on foot and until I saw Shaxx here, I wasn’t sure if anyone else from the tower had survived.” Sofie replied as she motioned for them to follow her into the ship, which they did.  
“There’s a lot we need to talk about.” Sofie added as she closed the ships hatch behind her.

She’d sort of commandeered the ship she currently had from Hawthorne and had since tried to make the ship feel more like her own. The cargo area, which was where she had slept the night before and where they were currently standing now, was littered with the remains of weapons, armor, food containers and blankets. 

“Make yourselves at home.” Sofie stated as she motioned to the crates and other things that were available to sit on.   
“How did you get your light back?” Isa asked as she sank onto an empty weapons crate.  
“I thought ghosts could only function if there was light? Plus your void tattoos are lit up.” She added as Jace gave her a questioning glance before turning to stare at Sofie, who was glancing at Indy.  
“I said we needed to talk, didn’t I?” Sofie asked as she perched herself on the edge of another crate.   
“We went to that shard of the Traveler.” Interrupted Indy as Sofie glared at him.  
“Either you are way more excited about this than you let on or you want me to get in trouble.” Sofie mumbled as she swatted at her ghost, who floated out of her reach.  
“Wow. You actually went there?” Jace asked as her eyes widened and she looked at Sofie in surprise.   
“We talked about going there too. Wonder if we could get our light back too.” She added as Isa shrugged and Sofie shook her head.   
“I’ll take you out there but without your ghosts, I don’t think that it’ll work.” Sofie replied as she stood up from her spot and turned towards that cockpit of the ship.   
“We’ll leave when you all are ready.” She added as she glanced back over her shoulder before disappearing into the cockpit.

Jace and Isa exchanged glances as they stood up themselves. Sofie seemed different, distant and it was unsettling to see their hunter be so different. As they rummaged through the crates, Isa and Jace both though about their fellow teammate. Jace was worried that something had happened to Sofie; that something bad had happened to her in the time that they’d been separated. Isa, on the other hand, was more concerned with the fact that Sofie seemed way thinner than she had been the last time they’d seen each other. Of course, that had been nearly two months ago now and she was certain that Sofie had struggled to reach the Farm in the first place. She hoped that eventually Sofie would open up to them about whatever had happened since she’d left the city; she knew that she and Jace would do the same eventually as well. 

“Are you guys ready?” called Sofia from the cockpit as Isa stuck her head through the cabin door, eyeing the empty jump seat.  
“We’re ready. Jace is strapped into the jump seat back there. I’ll co-pilot with you if you want.” Isa stated as she slid into the seat, her helmet under her arm.  
“Great. We’re ready for take off then.” Sofie stated as she flipped the switches on the dash in preparation for takeoff. 

There was silence between them as Sofie prepped for takeoff but once they were in the air, Isa swiveled in her seat and starred at her teammate. The blonde hunter was studiously ignoring the titan and she was doing an amazing job until Isa began poking her in the shoulder.

“What!” Sofie cried as she threw her hands up and turned to look at the titan in the seat next to her.   
“You’ve lost weight.” Isa stated and Sofie raised an eyebrow in confusion.  
“You noticed?” she replied sarcastically with a role of her eyes and Isa sighed.  
“What happened when you left the city?” Isa pressed and Sofie starred at the console in contemplation as she thought about how to respond. 

The faces of their fellow guardians floated through her head as she though about how to respond to Isa’s question. Should she tell her everything? Should she divulge all of the pain and anger and sadness and fear that she felt as she fled the city? Emerald green eyes turned to stare hard into electric ice blue and in that exact moment, Isa didn’t need an answer to the question. They’d known each other for so long that words didn’t need to be exchanged anymore and not only had Sofie conveyed her thoughts and feelings in the look but she had seen just as much fear and pain in Isa’s eyes to know that they were no longer the same people they had been when they last saw each other. Turning back to the ships main console, Sofie resumed her task of managing the various meters and dials and such.

“Jasper died.” Isa whispered and Sofie didn’t dare look at her friend as she starred even harder at the console.  
“I though he might have escaped but I guess not.” Sofie replied softly as she turned to look at the awoken warrior woman next to her.   
“The Cabal were gathering lightless guardians in the streets and just slaughtering them. It was terrible. Commander Zavala talked about rallying a counter offensive on Titan but with as few guardians that probably survived the attack on the city, I don’t think leaving Earth is a wise idea.” Isa stated and Sofie heaved a sigh.   
“I got a weird transmission from Cayde right around the time we arrived at the Farm. Something about the Vex and a failsafe. Sounded like he needed help but I couldn’t do anything about it then.” Sofie replied as she leaned back in her seat and placed her hands behind her head.   
“So the Commander went to Titan, most likely and we know that wherever Cayde went, he needs help. Has anyone said anything about Ikora?” Isa asked and Sofie shook her head.  
“Shaxx suggested that she probably went somewhere to meditate; which is a very Ikora-like thing to do so I was thinking she probably went to Mercury or Io or something.” Sofie replied as shrugged her shoulders.

The remainder of the trip occurred in relative silence, with Sofie and Isa both relegated to their own thoughts. As they approached the Dark Forest and the shard, Sofie moved back into position and went on somewhat of a high alert. She knew how tough it had been to fight to the shard of the Traveler the last time she’d been there, and she was slightly apprehensive. She was worried, also, about her teammates and how they would fare without their ghosts help. Neither Isa nor Jace had mentioned anything about their ghosts and Sofie hadn’t wanted to pry into what would probably be a very sensitive subject.   
Indy landed the ship a short way away from the top of the hill that led to the shard and once the three women were on the ground, took the ship back into orbit to keep it safe from the Fallen before joining Sofie. Pulling the scout rifle off of her back, she lined up the scope and motioned for the other two to fall in behind her; which they did without question. They’d run so many missions and nightfall strikes and even raids together that they didn’t need words to communicate.   
Sofie starred through the scope at the Fallen at the bottom of the hill. There were less Fallen milling around than there had been the last time. That didn’t mean, however, that there weren’t more hanging around nearby. The Fallen were creatures of habit and while they were far from uncivilized beasts, they were drawn to the Light and were not to underestimated. Lining up her scope again, she counted 8 Fallen total; six dregs and two vandals. A quick nod of her head and she felt Isa place a single tap on her back. Jace followed suit and a second later, one of the vandals’ heads exploded from the explosive rounds of Sofie’s scout rifle. The second vandal was quick to follow as Sofie fired off another shot.   
The dregs were now starting scramble around and return fire as Sofie heaved a sigh. Quickly shifting the rifle back to the sling on her back, she reached for her grenades and launched a scatter grenade down the hill. The grenade fell short, landing a few feet away from the closest dreg and Sofie dropped her head. She heard Isa move behind her and then a thud as the titan threw something. Jace had to stifle a giggle as she watched Isa snatch up a rather large rock and chuck it down the hill. The rock, which was actually closer to the size of a soccer ball, made contact with the closest dreg and smashed it into the ground. Jace was sure that the dregs head had been crushed under the rock.

“Very subtle.” Whispered Jace as she pulled nudged Isa and Sofie shook her head though she was also having trouble not laughing.   
“Let’s get down there.” Sofie whispered in reply though her voice was much lighter than it had been before. 

Even without their Light, Isa and Jace were still forces to be reckoned with. Maybe it was the rage they had about being lightless or maybe it was something else but Sofie had very little work to do as the titan and the warlock tore through the remaining dregs. The resulting carnage was both terrifying and inspiring as Sofie stood back and let out a low whistle. The other two women were panting, chests heaving from the exertion until Jace started laughing. That was all it took for Isa and Sofia to loose their cool as well and all three of them were laughing.

“Even without the light, you two are terrifying.” Sofie stated as she tried to stop laughing and get her breathing under control.  
“I bet we looked ridiculous.” Jace replied and Sofie shook her head  
“Absolutely not. Do you feel better though?” she asked as Jace shrugged and Isa shook her head.  
“It was a great stress reliever, but I’d feel better if we had the light.” Isa stated and Sofie turned to the vine covered wall behind her. 

The Traveler was still humming with unknown energy and Sofie motioned for her friends to have a look. A reverent sort of silence fell over the small clearing as Jace and Isa approached the shard. Both were still for a moment before Isa reached into her ammo pouch and pulled out a horribly dented ghost shell. Solis’s shell was missing chunks in a few places but had remained largely intact, with the center orb still in one piece. Gently, the normally stalwart awoken titan held his shell out to the broken crack in the traveler’s shard. Jace hadn’t moved at all and Sofie was beginning to fear the worst for her friends ghost until the awoken warlock produced a ghost shell of her own. Nyx’s shell was less damaged than Solis’s but Jace seemed more reluctant to do anything with it. Carefully, she stepped up next to Isa and together the two of them approached the crack in the shard.   
The reaction that they received was far less brilliant than the reaction that Sofie had received when she had first approached the shard. What happened next however was something that only a few would ever witness. The light became incredibly bright and pulsed and then there was an incredible flash. Sofie dropped into a crouch as she felt the Light from the shard fluctuate and she was nearly blinded as the light flashed and surrounded them. It wasn’t entirely disorientating this time around and as the light dissipated, she noticed something that would forever remain a mystery.   
Isa and Jace were both laying on the ground and Sofie was immediately concerned until she saw a strange white-ish figure standing near the shard. She couldn’t discern exactly what its face looked like but when the being looked up, it was impossible to look away. 

“Champion. Stand tall. Heed the Void Light you bare. It will bring you what you desire.” Echoed a voice from within as she stared blankly ahead.  
“Sofie! Are you alright?” Jace called as she waved her hand in front of Sofie’s face.  
“Maybe all that light stunned her.” Isa stated as she looked to Solis, who was now floating at her shoulder.  
“SOFIE!” Jace shouted.

Sofie gasped as she dropped to her knees. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d seen but whatever it was had to have been a sign of some sort. The words that had been spoken to her were still ringing in her head as she took some deep breaths. 

“What happened to you?” Isa asked as she reached out to pull the hunter to her feet; which didn’t take much strength at all considering Sofie’s considerable weight loss.   
“The Light, I think. I saw something or heard something. Like the Traveler was speaking to me.” Sofie whispered as she staggered upright and turned to look at her friends.

The first thing she noticed was that the two seemingly empty ghost shells that she’d seen moments ago were now floating near their respective guardians. Solis was hovering over Isa’s left shoulder while Nyx had come to rest in the space between Jace’s neck and her shoulder guard. 

“Did you get your light back?” Sofie asked as Jace and Isa exchanged a glance.   
“Not entirely. Solis said they can’t revive us anymore but at least they’re back to moving around.” Jace stated as Isa crossed her arms.   
“Can’t use our supers either so that’s a downside.” Isa added and Sofie nodded.  
“It’s alright. At least Solis and Nyx are back.” Sofie whispered as she smiled. 

The sun was setting on the horizon when the three women returned to the Farm. Together they gathered their meals from the food area and then returned to Sofie’s ship for the night. They broke into their food and ate in relative peaceful silence. Being back together as a team made all three of them feel less saddened by the things that had happened. Once they were done eating Sofie quickly tossed blankets around and it didn’t take very long for the three of them to fall asleep. The next morning came quickly once again and Sofie was the first one awake again. Not much had changed in that respect because she’d always been the first one awake on their team. She was just about to rouse the other two when a tremendous crash resonated from outside the ship, startling the two women awake. Quickly moving to the hatch, Sofie was surprised when Stallion appeared in front of her. 

“Shaxx needs your help.” He stated and Sofie was quickly joined by Isa and Jace.  
“What’s going on out there?” Jace asked sleepily and Stallion bobbed somewhat erratically.  
“You’ll see. We need to go.” He stated and then he vanished again.

Exchanging glances, Sofie grabbed her boots and her cloak; Isa and Jace followed suit as they followed her out of the ship. There was a lot of noise coming from the main Farm area and when they finally arrived, all three were surprised to see a crowd had gathered. 

“What’s going on?” Sofie asked as she moved towards where Shaxx was standing.  
“Sofie? You guys survived too?” asked a voice and suddenly there was silence as Sofie turned to face the crowd.

Amassed in random bits of armor and weapons, Sofie realized that this wasn’t just a random crowd; it was a crowd of lightless guardians. Suddenly, there was a frenzy as everyone started pushing and shoving and hugs were exchanged and tears were shed as Sofie, Isa and Jace reunited with their fellow guardians. A glance at Shaxx revealed that he looked fairly relieved that the crowd had relaxed slightly. 

“So why was everyone making so much noise?” Isa asked as she turned from the group slightly to look at Shaxx, who was shaking his head slightly.   
“We wanted to know where the Vanguard is?” asked Tessa Westeros, a warlock that was standing next to Jace.  
“Zavala wouldn’t abandon us.” Chimed in someone from that back of the crowd and Isa frowned.   
“If they didn’t abandon us, then why aren’t they here?” asked Jace and there was a murmur of agreements from several guardians standing in the crowd.  
“Cayde’s probably off on some adventure so I don’t really blame him for not being here.” Mumbled a hunter named Cassius and several of his fellow hunters nodded in agreement.  
“But Ikora and Zavala wouldn’t just leave. Would they?” asked someone else and there was another murmur of agreement as Isa, Jace and Sofie exchanged glances.  
“Do we really need the Vanguard to lead us?” Jace asked suddenly, a comment which startled her two teammates.

There was a fair amount of silence amongst the crowd as people seemed to be mulling the idea over. Did they really need the Vanguard to lead them? That was a great question and Sofie felt a strange sort of fear start to settle over her. The individual murmurs started to turn into little group discussions and then suddenly, there was more silence.

“I nominate Sofia McAlister to be the standing hunter vanguard.” Stated a voice and there were quiet murmurs as Sofie felt herself be pushed forward to the front of the crowd.  
“I second that motion.” Added Cassius and Sofie turned a leveled a glare at the male hunter who gave her an apologetic smile and a shrug.  
“Then I nominate Isa Vess and Jace Arrang as the standing titan and standing warlock vanguards.” Sofie stated as she grabbed the arms of her two teammates and pulled them forward with her.   
“I second that motion.” Stated Shaxx and there was a buzzing sort of silence as the three women turned to face the crowd of gathered guardians.

The silence was followed by cheers and for the first time since the attacks, there seemed to be some sort of progress being made. The regular vanguard was absent and now, in their place, stood three more. Sofie felt a strange sense of ensnarement come over her as she stood before the crowd. Sure, she’d helped Cayde do a lot of the hunter vanguard work in the first place and she knew how trapped he felt because they’d talked about it a lot. Hell, she’d been there when Cayde had taken the vanguard spot after Andal’s death and it hadn’t been his desire; rather it had been a matter of honor and not going back on a promise.   
Isa felt strange, almost like she was a usurper. She loved the Commander and she had been there as a support for such a long time. She’d fought at Twilight Gap; all three of them had. She’d made the last stand at the tower along side him as well but when he’d asked her to come with him, she’d declined. Earth and the Last City needed her; needed the guardians that were still available, and she had said she would stand at defense until she died. That was the last that she’d seen him and now she was effectively taking his place.   
Jace, on the other hand, was elated. She’d been Ikora’s understudy for a long time and had spent nearly as long studying and preparing to take over in the event that the warlock vanguard needed replacing. She loved Ikora like a mentor and a friend, but she was excited to finally be able to put all of the knowledge that she’d been learning to use. Of course, she missed Ikora but if anyone had any idea how to lead; it was going to be the three of them.

“So now what?” asked a warlock from the front of the group and there was a mass of murmuring.   
“We need intel. Has anyone got any information about the city?” Jace asked and a few people raised their hands.  
“So, here’s what we do. Hunters come meet with me, titans and warlocks do that same with your respective leaders. Everyone will have a job to do and being lightless doesn’t make you any less capable in your talents and abilities. If we have any hope of fighting against the Red Legion, then we need organization and information.” Sofie stated as she raised an arm as a signal for silence and attention.

Being a leader hadn’t been her plan but as the group began to disperse to their respective leaders, she realized she was probably most capable leader the hunters had. Once the groups had divided entirely, she noticed that there were only five hunters; one female awoken, one male awoken, one male exo and two human males. 

“So, we’ve got only six of us left?” asked the awoken female as the others starred at each other.  
“Is it true you’ve got your light back?” asked the exo hunter, a quiet murmur moving through the group.  
“I’ll tell you before you hear it as a rumor. Yes. I went to the shard of the traveler and somehow managed to be granted my light back. Its been a few days. I’ve already taken a few other people out there and none of them have received the same. If you want to go; we’ll arrange something where we can all go.” Sofie stated as Indy appeared near her head, his eye glowing.

There were a few head nods and Sofie crossed her arms as she considered the group in front of her. These were hunters and she knew that she couldn’t ask them to stay cooped up around the Farm. If they were going to plan any sort of counter offensive on the city, then they were going to need intel on the movement of the Cabal troops and the status of the wall and anything else they could gather. Before she could send anyone else out however, she would need to figure out the talents and skills of the hunters she had and then consult with the new vanguard to arrange teams that could work together. So, she started off with questions. Who had been a sniper? Who had been a tracker? Who had been a scout? Had anyone been really good at the crucible? There were varied answers to these questions and once she was done, she asked everyone to write their names down.   
Elsewhere on the Farm, the warlocks and the titans were reconnecting with each other; Isa and Jace were doing the same thing that Sofie was doing with her hunters. They gathered names and abilities before urging their fellow guardians to help out around the Farm. An hour or so later, the new vanguard met in the small house on the edge of the Farm near the lake. Isa and Jace arrived first and Sofie arrived about 10 minutes later; a crate in her arms with Shaxx and Hawthorne following her.

“What’s in the crates?” Jace asked as Sofie set her own crate on the makeshift table in the middle of the room.   
“Maps and stuff that were smuggled out of the city ages ago.” Supplied Hawthorne as Jace’s eyes widened and Sofie rolled her eyes.   
“As much as I don’t condone in stealing vanguard issue crap; and Traveler knows I’ve got way more vanguard stuff in my apartment than I should, it doesn’t matter how this stuff got here.” Sofie stated as she began unpacking the box she’d set down.  
“So we’ve got maps. Do we have a plan yet?” Isa asked and Sofie shook her head.   
“We have no idea where any of the Vanguard have gone.” Jace stated and there was a certain tone in her voice that made Sofie and Isa pause.   
“Commander Zavala said something about rallying a counter-offensive on Titan.” Isa stated as she unrolled a map onto the table.   
“And you said that you got a message from Cayde’s ghost. We should be able to trace that somehow.” She continued with a glance at Sofie who nodded and moved to stand near the table.   
“Well there’s broken comm’s relay up above the salt mines. Get that thing working; we’ll be able to broadcast a signal letting people know the Farm is here.” Hawthorne stated from her spot by the door and Isa nodded.   
“Dev has the piece we need.” She added as the hunter and the titan exchanged a look.  
“So, then its settled. Sofia will help Dev and Hawthorne fix the signal relay. Jace and I will start organizing the guardians that come in. We need to start gathering resources and intel if we plan to move on the city.” Isa stated and Jace frowned.   
“Why is Sofie going to help them while we stay here?” Jace asked, her tone upset.  
“I’m the only guardian with their light right now. I wont die. I’m kind of the only person who can do any of the dangerous stuff that needs to be done. Besides, Isa is right. You know how to handle the information coming in from the Hidden. Right now, we need to do the jobs our original vanguard would have done. Isa is going to lead like Zavala and we need you to be the intelligence person, like Ikora.” Sofie said as Isa nodded. 

Jace didn’t look at all pleased with the idea and just one look at her face told both of her teammates that she had something she wanted to say but didn’t look like she was going to say it. They’d been a team for so long that they often didn’t need verbal communication to communicate. Hawthorne and Shaxx both left them at this point, returning to their prior activities. Sofia and Isa began their work by marking things out on the map. The map of the city that they’d ended up with wasn’t that old, maybe only a few decades, so it was fairly easy to mark up where new things were that weren’t on the map. With Indy’s help, they were able to figure out the spot where Sofie had escaped the city through the culvert. Though they had only been talking for a few hours, they had begun to formulate a plan. Objectives were drawn up and once they were totally planned out, Sofie called a gathering of the guardians at the Farm though there were a few civilians that attended as well.   
“If we want to take back our city, then we need information. We need to know where the Cabal are and what their movement look like.” Isa stated as she starred out at the gathered crowd.

“We’ve compiled a list of objectives that need to be undertaken. Some of them are more dangerous than others and should only be taken by experienced teams. Lightless or not, we can still be guardians.” She added and there was a murmur that ran through the crowd.   
“So your basically asking us to risk our lives for everything?” asked a voice from the middle of the crowd, spoken by a titan named Fae Magi.   
“Essentially, yes.” Isa replied before Sofie or Jace could say anything.   
“Alrighty then.” Was his only response as the crowd chuckled nervously before Fae and two other lightless guardians stepped forward.   
“Tank, Jack Chill and I will take the first job.” He stated as the three of them approached the board

Isa handed them the first objective and then a few more teams followed. Jester, Ron and Lion took the second job while Cuba agreed to take Jedi and Flash-14 for a simpler job moving supplies. As more and more people, guardians and civilians alike started taking jobs; Sofie realized that maybe this would all work out better than she had anticipated. 

“Its already halfway past noon. I should head into Trostland and see if I can’t get that signal booster from Devrim.” Sofie stated as she leaned against the wall back inside the now designated meeting room.   
“So, you’re leaving then.” Jace stated as Sofie looked over at her.  
“That’s the plan. Trostland isn’t far. I should be alright.” Sofie replied as she pushed off of the wall and walked towards the door, stopping just short to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Isa. 

Jace knew that there was a closed comradery-ship between Isa and Sofie. They’d been team mates longer than Jace had been on the team and she knew that they often spoke to each other without thinking about it. All awoken shared a connection with each other, something that wasn’t often used but it was certainly helpful to Jace and Isa. As teammates, they were incredibly close but Jace had often noticed that Isa and Sofie seemed to have a sort of unspoken connection; communicating mentally instead of verbally and she felt left out. She watched as Isa nodded and they exchanged their customary fist bump before Sofie headed out the door and her ghost transmatted her away. There was a few moments of silence before Jace shook her head. 

“So, what sort of secret conversation did you two have now?” Jace asked as she crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall.  
“What are you talking about?” Isa asked as she looked over at the warlock.  
“You know what I’m talking about. You and Sofia are always having these strange telepathic conversations. I never know what you two are talking about.” Jace complained as Isa raised an eyebrow.   
“Its just the connection that Sofie and I share because of our light. She’s pretty damaged right now.” Isa replied as Solas, her ghost, began scanning the map.  
“She’s damaged?” cried Jace; her voice loud enough that it startled Solas and Isa but did little to phase her ghost, Nyx.   
“She’s damaged? What about us? What about the shit we saw on the streets of the city? What about the friends we couldn’t save? Aren’t we damaged too?” Jace continued and Isa stared at her for a moment before heaving a sigh and exchanging a glance with Solas.   
“I never said that. We experienced a lot of shit too. We saw a lot of bloody, horrible things after the Cabal attacked. We lost a lot of people, civilians and guardians alike. But Sof didn’t have anyone. She managed to make it out of the city alone. Yeah, she’s a hunter and they often go alone but no one should experience what we did without someone.” Isa stated and Jace seemed to deflate a little bit.   
“She’d also the only guardian who has their light. You do realize that if anyone has to confront Ghaul or do anything majorly dangerous, its going to be Sofie. That’s one lone hunter against the whole universe.” She added softly and Jace moved her gaze to the ground. 

Jace felt a little guilty for the outburst. She loved her teammates, and she’d die to protect them, but she’d always felt that Sofie and Isa were more popular than she was. It might have been a little petty to think of it now, but she’d always felt like she was standing in their combined shadow and never quite their social equal. For Isa, she wasn’t all that surprised by Jace’s outburst. She’d always known that Jace was a bit more sensitive and she was significantly more introverted that Sofie or herself were. Isa figured that Jace just needed some time to figure out her feelings and everything.  
Elsewhere, Sofie was sitting in the cockpit of her ship. She’d stopped a bit away from the house and she’d heard Jace’s outburst. It was somewhat upsetting to know that Jace felt that way, but it wasn’t her fault. Isa had been her teammate for far longer that she had even known Jace; and she was significantly older in terms of being a risen or a guardian. She had a much better understanding of the light and its finer workings than what a lot of other people seemed too. She felt that Jace was being petty and was rather glad to not have to be around her right now. Right now, however, she didn’t feel that great. Jace’s comments hurt more that Sofie felt like they should. In fact, it hurt way more than she realized. Suddenly she was stricken with a deep sense of grief; she felt more alone now than she did when she’d left the city. It was almost suffocating and the desperate need to escape resurfaced in force.

“We’re ready to take off if your ready.” Stated Indy as Sofie starred at the console.   
“Alright. Suraya said that Devrim is occupying the old church in Trostland, so that’s where we need to go.” Sofie stated, her voice incredibly quiet. Indy didn’t reply as he took control of the ship. He’d never seen her so upset. 

Actually, that wasn’t true at all he decided. He’d first met Sofia before she’d even become a guardian, or a risen as they were called back then. It was just after the ghosts had started arriving on earth, looking for their designated chosen ones when he’d met her. Human scientists of the time were fascinated by the ghosts and there were several who would really stop at nothing to obtain one. Indy had been one of the unlucky ones who had been caught. He didn’t know exactly how long he’d been captive but one day this blonde-haired woman just walked in, unlocked his cage and walked out with him. She’d quietly told him to stay out of sight and then she’d taken him to what had appeared to be living quarters. That was where he’d met her husband and her child. She’d been happy then and for some unknown reason, he’d stayed around her. He hadn’t known then that she would become his guardian or of any of the things that she would go through but he had felt drawn to her; so he’d stayed.   
He could remember everything like it had happened yesterday; it was merely data to him after all. He remembered that her son became ill; the child was going to die. Then her husband left; supposedly to take a job that would pay for the treatments that their son needed but they never saw him again. The payments for the treatment did occur, however, and her son received the best treatments available; until he died unexpectedly. A complication during surgery they had said but it was enough to kill what little was left of the woman who had been left behind. Indy remembered the days that had followed. Sofie hadn’t had much energy to do anything and then one day, she decided to fix the pain in her own way. She’d lost her husband and her only child and at that one moment, there was no future worth living for; so she climbed up one of the towers on one of the research buildings and jumped off. The impact had killed her instantly and in that moment, Indy realized that he’d been so drawn to her because she was his chosen.  
He’d given her her light then; reviving her like he was supposed to. He’d never considered that she’d jump off that building again and again and again until he’d lost count of how many times he’d revived her. Those chosen by the light aren’t supposed to remember their previous lives; yet, Sofie did for some reason though she never talked about it to anyone. For years, that was a cycle that they had both endured until l Sofie connected with another risen and an exo. That exo was then just Cayde-1 but he helped pull her from the depths to which she had fallen. They’d become incredibly close and it had almost ruined her again when Cayde had been killed the first time. They’d gone off world and had returned to find the exo risen with his own ghost. Turning back to the blonde hunter in the pilots seat, Indy bumped her cheek slightly.

“We’ll be in Trostland shortly.” Indy whispered and Sofie nodded, her face was still tear stained.   
“Yea. Maybe there’ll be some Fallen that I can shoot or something. Maybe I’ll even get to use a shadowshot or two.” She mumbled as the ship’s control panel beeped before the ship swooped into a landing dive. 

Years of transmatting from her ship had made this process fairly simple and as her feet touched the ground; she was more than relieved to be moving back into something relatively normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be kind about some of the characters that are featured in this chapter. All are based off of real players and they have all provided consent for me to use their characters; as they appear in Destiny.   
> Those charaters are as follows: Jester, Lion, Ron, Fae Magi, Tank, Jack Chill, Cuba, Jedi, Flash-14 and Cassius Wren.   
> They technically all belong to their respective players.  
> I also dont own anything owned by Bungie; if you've ever played Destiny then you know exactly what I dont own.


	3. Into The Wild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sofie makes it to Trostland while Isa and Jace face off while trying to reconcile the things that have happened to them and the things that they'd seen.

A long sigh escaped Isa’s lips as she watched Jace walk out of the new command room. Sofie had been gone for almost an hour and while Jace had finished with her outburst, she was still dwelling on it. Finally, Isa had gotten so tired of it that she had had to politely ask the stewing warlock to take a walk or something so that she had a cool enough head to deal with everything they had to deal with. She wanted to be disappointed with Jace, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t really fault the warlock for being angry though. The attack on the city had left everyone with their own sort of trauma.   
Closing her eyes, she could still hear the sounds of the attack like it had happened yesterday. She had been in the command room when the attack had begun, so she’d seen the start of the assault. There had been several major blasts and Zavala had managed to use the dome shield to provide some sort of defense but there had been too much to defend against. In the immediate aftermath of the first incident, she’d helped evacuate the tower, but something had drawn her to the courtyard; like a pull on her light. So, she had returned to the tower courtyard and had watched as her commander had been nearly overtaken by Cabal. He managed to fend off the first attack, but she could see that he was beginning to suffer from fatigue. Somewhere, in the depths of her soul, the feeling of anger and fury had risen up and she’d produced a Fist of Havoc like none she’d ever had before. There hadn’t been a single Cabal left standing.  
She remembered Zavala having been speechless at the display of power. He’d also been disappointed at the fact that she hadn’t obeyed orders and had come back into the fight. Of course, at the time, that had seemed like a preposterous idea because there were other guardians who had chosen to stay and fight. So, side-by-side, they had battled for what felt like ever when Sofie had appeared out of the fray. She battled her way through the tower, and she was just as much in shock as the rest of them. The three of them had fought off several more pods that continued to land before Zavala had told Sofie that the Speaker was missing. He had insisted that both of them go; looking back now it was likely an effort to spare her but she had refused. She and Sofie had exchanged a single message each before Sofie had dodged the incoming Cabal and disappeared into the tower.   
They’d kept on fighting until the assault on the tower seemed to wane and the drop pods stopped falling on the tower. The attack on the city remained relentless. It wasn’t until the Traveler was totally covered in the menacing red-orange glow that something happened. Isa remembers the feeling of losing her light quite clearly. She’d just activated another Fist of Havoc when the light went out. She’d fallen almost twenty feet out of the air during a jump and had landed pretty solidly on top of a pile of destroyed concrete. She didn’t know how long she had laid there or how long she’d been unconscious, but she’d woken up sometime later under a staircase. The commander had been knelt by her side and at that moment, her heart had broken. She would never admit out loud, except to her ghost or maybe her fireteam, that she loved the Commander beyond anything she’d ever felt before and seeing him look so sad and lost had killed her.   
Once she had been awake long enough, he’s asked her to go to Titan with him. They could rally their counter-offensive there and he said she’d be a big help in forming a counteroffensive against the Red Legion and in that one moment, Isa remembered feeling numb. Her gaze strayed towards the city and the smoke that was pouring off of it. The City was now defenseless and he wanted to LEAVE? Isa had been so confused and it hadn’t taken long before that confusion and numbness had turned to anger. How could he leave the city behind when it was defenseless for the first time in centuries? She hadn’t realized at that moment that there was no light anymore. Something deep inside of her had wanted to confess her deepest feelings because once she realized he was leaving; Isa knew that they might never see each other again. She had insisted that she needed to stay. If she didn’t stay to defend the city, then who would? It was suicide and they both probably knew that, but Isa had refused to admit anything less than her duty to the Last City and to the code that all titans were meant to uphold. She remembered fighting back tears as she’d watched him board the ship with Sloan.   
She’s stood there until she couldn’t see the ship any longer, and for a moment, she questioned everything she knew about herself? Was she that scared? Was she really so attached to one man that she felt like she couldn’t move on? Was she that weak? The answer, of course, was both yes and no. Of course, she was scared. There had never been such an attack on the Traveler before and there had never been a time when all of the guardians had lost their light in its entirety at the same time. This was a new battle, something that no guardian had ever faced before. However, she wasn’t weak. She was still alive and that meant she could keep fighting; weakness only happened when you gave up. So, she’d fought. She’d gotten beat quite a bit and yet, she was still alive. Breathing another sigh, Isa pushed herself away from the table and turned to look at Solis. She was immensely glad that she had her ghost to converse with still. 

“She’ll be alright.” Stated Solis as Isa looked down at the map.  
“Will she? Jace has always been more sensitive than the rest of us. She doesn’t handle stuff well.” Isa stated quietly as Solis bobbed closer to her.   
“She’ll have to learn,” Solis stated and Isa shook her head.

There was a bit of silence as Isa took a deep breath before exhaling. Right now, there was no time for being upset or angry. She had to be the titan she was supposed to be; strong and withstanding. In her mind, she didn’t have the time to be depressed. If, and when, they won this war; then and only then would she allow herself the time she needed to grieve and come to terms with everything. Standing up straight, she grabbed one of the markers off of the table and began making notes on the map that lay before her.   
Elsewhere on the Farm, Jace was starring out at the crystal-clear water of the lake. Her eyes were filled with tears and she furiously tried to wipe them away. She hated being sensitive. Jace knew that she was more emotional than Isa or Sofia and it was often frustrating because she often didn’t feel like she could handle all of the stress that came with being a guardian. It wasn’t really her fault though. Nyx had explained that often times, guardians retained intrinsic traits and quirks from their former selves. The little ghost had gone on to explain that guardians were exactly who they had been before their first deaths; all the ghost did was revive them. The memory loss was just a side effect and often varied between guardians. Sucking in a ragged breath, she wiped her eyes again and tried to focus.

“Sofie probably heard everything.” Nyx stated as she materialized near Jace’s elbow and the warlock looked down at her ghost in surprise.   
“How?” Jace whispered and Nyx bobbed around for a moment before turning to face her guardian.  
“She was right outside of the house when you had your outburst. She may have heard everything you said.” The ghost stated and Jace frowned. 

Sofie was one of her closest friends and while she had been upset, Jace had never meant to make her upset or hurt her. Of course, she was still upset and hurt by Isa’s statements. Weren’t they damaged too? Weren’t they broken too? She didn’t understand why Isa could conceive the idea that Sofie was more broken than the rest of them. What had the hunter faced that they hadn’t?

“Unless you ask her, you’ll never know.” Stated Nyx as she floated into Jace’s face.  
“I’m not going to ask her. She’ll never tell me. I wish Ikora were here.” Jace mumbled as she buried her face in her arms again.  
“You wanted to be the leader though. You wanted to take Ikora’s place; its what you trained for.” Nyx stated as Jace breathed out a ragged, shaky breath but kept her face in her arms.   
“I never wanted this.” She whispered in response to the ghost’s statement. 

That was a true statement; she’d never wanted any of this. She’d never wanted to have her light taken away from her. She’d never wanted the Red Legion to attack the city and she most certainly had never asked to lose her mentor. It was also true that she had always wanted to be the leader, to be the one in control of the situation and yet now that she finally had the leadership and control, she’d always wanted, she didn’t know what to do. In fact, instead of being a leader; she was crumbling under the stress of the situation. Jace felt even more broken and scared now than she did on that first initial day after the attack.   
Unlike Isa, who had been on duty at the Tower and Sofie, who had been coming back from a scouting mission at the time of the attack; Jace had somehow managed to have the day off. She’d woken up from a bad dream and had originally planned to head up to Vostok to check-in at the Iron Temple. She’d never made it farther than the small market down the street. She had been unarmored and unarmed when the attack began; she was almost completely defenseless against the Cabal that attacked. Having been on the city streets, she had watched a lot of people die. Other guardians had come to assist and it had been some of the most brutal fightings that she’d ever seen. There were a lot of guardians who died their final deaths before their light was ever stolen. The Cabal were actively taking out any ghosts that they saw; something that shook all of the guardians that encountered them.   
Fighting became futile as ghosts after ghost was killed. Eventually, between the Cabal that were attacking, the bombs, and the drop pods that were delivering more and more troops; the remaining guardians were pushed back and as they went, they took civilians with them. Jace had ended up with another warlock, a hunter, a titan, and eight civilians that they’d kept in their group. They had three children in that group and that was the hardest part. Or at least it was until the light was gone. Jace remembered crying out. It had been as if someone had reached into her very soul and stolen half of it. They had gotten out of the city at some point, but the damage had been done. Of the four guardians that had been in the group, to begin with, Jace was one of two to survive. They hadn’t even been able to move the bodies of the dead. They’d been forced with abandoning their dead comrades and moving on to safety.   
In the months that had passed since the initial attack, Jace had hardly slept or eaten. A few days after leaving the city, her little group had crossed paths with another group of survivors and Jace had been reunited with Isa. They’d stuck together after that; traveling with their now caravan of people looking for safety. Eventually, word of a place on the other side of Twilight Gap had gotten to them and so that’s how they had ended up at the Farm. 

“Now I know that hunters have a penchant for hiding in trees, but I’ve never seen a warlock do it.” Called a voice from behind her and Jace turned to see another warlock approaching her.   
“What do you want Montana?” Jace asked as the other warlock walked up and stood at the base of the tree, she was perched in.  
“Is that any way to treat your favorite underling?” the warlock replied as he pulled his helmet off.

Jace dropped out of the tree and stood with her arms crossed as she watched the man before her. The warlocks real name was Carter, but he had claimed to come from a place called Montana and that had ended up becoming his nickname. He was a fellow warlock and one that Jace had once worked closely with.

“I think Isa is looking for you.” Montana stated as he tucked his helmet under his arm.  
“Is that all?” Jace asked and she released her arms; her whole-body signaling defeat.   
“She was asking if anyone had seen you. Can’t have our new vanguard falling apart before it even starts.” He stated softly and Jace shook her head.   
“Besides, you looked pretty miserable out here. We’ve all seen some shit, Jace. All of us. We can’t let it drag us down. We’ve got to be stronger than that.” He added, reaching out to place a hand on Jace’s shoulder. 

Carter was right, even if Jace didn’t want to admit it. Taking a few deep breaths, she moved forwards and then began walking back towards the farm. She felt a sense of normality when she felt Carter fall into step beside her. Warlocks didn’t often move in large groups but Jace was used to wandering around with a fellow warlock or two to discuss the matters they had at hand. This was nothing different as they proceeded back to the Farm, quietly discussing the information that Carter had gathered from his fellow Hidden in the last few hours. 

Farther off in the European Dead Zone, Sofia was landing from her transmat. Having hated transmatting from the ground to ship and back for such a long time; this transmat was a welcome reminder that she was still a guardian. She remembered Suraya talking about how Trostland was in the middle of the EDZ, or the European Dead Zone. Once she landed though, she was surprised that there was a guardian transmat beacon all the way out here. Of course, this was likely established as a scouting transmat beacon and she’s stopped running local scouting missions a long time ago it was pretty realistic to say that she would never have known this was here. Indy pointed out, like all good ghosts do, that their contact Devrim was up at the top of the church but he was a bit perturbed to find his guardian gazing around them. 

“Sofia! Did you hear me?” asked Indy as he zoomed around and starred into his guardians face.  
“I heard you Ind’s. Its just kind of surreal, yea know?” she whispered as her gaze finally settled on the church.  
“Like, I didn’t think when we were leaving the city that we’d ever be back on any sort of mission and yet, here we are.” She added as the ghost stopped moving in front of her and began scanning the immediate area instead.   
“As surreal as it is guardian, I’m sure the Fallen won't mind killing you to be sure you’ve got your light.” Stated a voice as an arc bolt whizzed past Sofie’s ear. 

A night stalkers dodge made them invisible, and as she hurried forward to the church for safety; Sofia moderately felt regretful that she couldn’t butcher all of the Fallen that came at her. It wasn’t that she didn’t think she could take them but rather, she wasn’t entirely sure how many of them there actually were. 

“You must be Devrim.” Stated Sofie into her comms unit as she entered the church.  
“We can talk more, guardian. Come up to the tower.” Devrim stated and Sofie shrugged as she exchanged a look with her ghost. 

Reaching the top of the church tower wasn’t difficult and when she finally met Dev, she was pleasantly surprised. The man greeted her with a sniper rifle in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. He wasn’t nearly as old as Suraya had described him to be either. 

“Welcome to Trostland, guardian.” He stated and Indy transmatted Sofie’s helmet away so that she could drink the tea.   
“Thank you.” Sofie chirped as she accepted the teacup and took a swig of the tea; it was a fruit tea, something that she had always enjoyed.   
“You’re very welcome guardian.” Dev stated as Sofie hummed to herself.   
“Its Sofia, actually. My name is Sofia McAlister.” Sofie interjected before she took another sip of her tea and smiled.   
“Well its certainly nice to meet you; Miss Sofia,” Devrim replied as Sofia beamed at the use of her name. 

It wasn’t something that was terribly big but guardians were rarely if ever, called by their actual names. More often than not, they were referred to as guardian or hunter, titan or warlock (depending on their class) by the general civilian population. On the tower, amongst their fellow guardians, they could be referred to by their class or by their name; depending on how close the other person was. More often than anything, from anyone, guardians were simply called “guardian.” So, Sofia relished in the chance she had to be called by her name.

“Hawthorne sent us.” Stated Indy as Sofia glared at the little robot.   
“Ah yes. Something about a piece for that signal broadcast unit up above the salt mines, if I'm not mistaken.” Stated Devrim as Sofie nodded her head while still glaring at Indy.

As if right on cue, Suraya’s voice broke through the silence around them.

“Hey, Dev? Any chance I'm going to get that piece for the comms unit soon?” Hawthorne asked as her voice echoed out from the relay system.  
“Ah, yes. Our new guardian friend is on her way with it right now.” Dev replied as he produced the replacement piece that Hawthorne needed.   
“Oh. Well finally.” Hawthorne replied as she let out a sigh. 

Sofie swallowed the remainder of her tea and motioned for Indy to transmat the piece they needed for safekeeping. Dev gave her an apologetic shrug as she prepped her gear for the mission she was going to undertake.

“Access to the old salt mines is pretty easy, just enter the tunnel directly behind the church. You’re probably going to run into the Fallen on your way up there though.” He stated and Sofie nodded her head as she adjusted her helmet and her hood.   
“Thanks for the tea, Dev.” Sofie replied and with a final nod, she turned and jumped off of the platforms.

Once on the ground, it was easy to see what Devrim had been talking about. According to Indy’s maps, the entrance to the salt mines was straight ahead and there were several Fallen shooting and screeching at her before she even left the church building. It was a welcome relief to be able to shoot stuff and kill some Fallen. It didn’t take very long for her to clear through the first half of the mine; only stopping to take a break when she eliminated the Fallen captain that was guarding the entrance to the lower tunnels. 

“How long have we been in here?” Sofie asked as she accepted the bottle of water from Indy.  
“About an hour. The only way through is down through the deeper tunnels. There should be a service elevator way down there somewhere.” Indy replied as Sofie replaced her helmet.   
“Guess we should go then.” She replied as Indy disappeared into her bag.

The descent into the tunnels was not entirely what she had expected. She had been expecting something more like old drilled tunnels; it was an old salt mine after all. What she found, however, was a lot of caved in tunnels and even more Fallen. There were so many shanks flying around and she was growing increasingly frustrated with her increasing lack of ammunitions. Dropping down through the final hole, she noticed that there were still several Fallen crawling around but that the direction had changed from downwards to forwards. After eliminating all of the remaining Fallen in the room, Sofie crouched behind a ruined truck while she recounted her ammo. 

“I’m not sure I’ve got enough ammo for this.” She whispered as Indy appeared at her shoulder.  
“Do you think we should come back?” Indy asked and Sofie shook her head.   
“We need to get this done. I really don’t like being underground.” Sofie replied as she looked at the ammo she had.   
“I’ve got more rounds for my kinetic than I do anything else.” She added as she pulled her hand cannon from its holster.  
“You’ll have to make every shot count.” Indy whispered and Sofie shrugged. 

She probably wouldn’t be able to make every shot a kill shot but she decided that she would do what she could. Peeking around the edge of the rusted-out truck, she made a mental count of about a half dozen or so low-class Fallen roaming around. It didn’t really look that bad and if she focused her shots, she’d probably have some sort of ammo left after. Another cursory glance revealed that there was a service elevator shaft at the other end. That was probably the service shaft that Indy had been talking about. Maybe, if she made a break for it, she could get to the elevator and not have to kill anything. Unholstering her hand cannon, she decided that’s exactly what she was going to do.   
Darting out from her hiding spot, she made a mad dash through the remaining room of the mine. It only occurred to her about halfway through the room that there were slightly more Fallen in the area than she had originally anticipated. Of course, she made it to the lift in no time but as she had Indy scanning the controls, she heard so many more Fallen than she had ever anticipated. Fingering her hand cannon, she knew that she didn’t have nearly enough ammunition to kill all of the Fallen.

“There's something blocking our way.” Stated Indy and Sofie raised an eyebrow.  
“You mean other than a lift that isn’t going to work?” she quipped and Indy flashed his light at her for a brief second before disappearing into her backpack.  
“Yes. I was detecting the presence of ether nearby.” Indy retorted through their shared link as Sofie turned and began to take stock of the Fallen that were creeping closer and closer.   
“Ether eh? It's probably those servitors then.” She whispered as three servitors appeared in the mine.

She was nearly completely sure that she didn’t have enough ammo for this but being that she was going solo on this endeavor, she had little choice but to make it all work out. And then she died. A bolt from a Fallen Vandal eliminated her before she could even do anything and Indy was less than pleased as he revived her outside of the elevator room.  
“We need more of a plan than that.” He chittered and Sofie glared at him for a moment. 

“I’m pretty sure that those servitors are blocking the electricity that we need to power the lift to get out of here. There’s three of them and several more vandals and dregs that I’ve got to worry about.” She replied back as she focused on the Fallen, who were now on high alert. 

Clearing out the Fallen dregs and vandals didn’t take very long but the Servitors took way more work. She was quickly running out of ammo and becoming frustrated with the situation. She’d managed to eliminate three of the servitors and had finally made it back across the room to check the service elevator. Indy scanned it and had begun running the systems to try and get power back to the elevator when Sofie heard a low whirring noise. 

“We’ve got company.” Sofie mumbled as she glanced over her shoulder at the new advanced servitor that had appeared at the other end of the room.   
“That’s the servitor that’s controlling the electricity. We’ve got to kill it.” Indy whispered and Sofie rose into a standing position. 

Lining up her hand cannon, she aimed for the servitor’s eye and fired. It was a critical shot and a smirk crossed her lips as she lined up the second shot. The shot was lined up and right as she fired, the servitor vanished and reappeared several feet to the left. Lining up her third shot, she pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. Another click and still nothing. No kinetic ammo. A rapid switch to her secondary weapon revealed that she was entirely out of ammunition. The visor feed in her helmet revealed that the servitor had taken only a little bit of damage from her first shot. She needed to eliminate the damned servitor quickly or else she’d end up being down here forever and they’d never get that comms relay fixed. Underneath her armor, the orange and yellow tattoo swirls were starting to glow; a sign that her light was transitioning from void orientated to solar. With the flash of her Golden gun and six shots later, the advanced servitor erupted into a shower of golden sparks. 

“Wasn’t that a bit excessive?” asked Indy as Sofie staggered towards the elevator.  
“Can we just get out of here already? You know how much I don’t like being underground.” Sofie replied as she leaned against the wall as the elevator rumbled to life.

She was absolutely less than confident that this age-old elevator would make it to the top of the shaft without incident. Indy, however, reassured her that he’d keep some sort of control of the lift while they were in it. Stepping onto the lift, Sofie groaned aloud when the gate slammed shut and the contraption began to rise. Indy kept his word, however, and with his help, they made it to the surface in one piece. She spotted hawthorn at the bottom of the trail with the comms unit and she didn’t think she’d ever been this relieved to see another human being. 

“You made it.” Called Hawthorn as Sofie jogged the rest of the way to meet her.  
“Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the Fallen?” Sofie asked, her voice full of sarcasm as Hawthorn looked at her.   
“Tell me about it.” Hawthorn replied and Sofie shook her head. 

She knew that Hawthorn didn’t mean anything bad by it and she was sure that the other woman had dealt with her fair share of Fallen but civilians never seemed to understand. Normal people would die against the Fallen. Guardians, on the other hand, had spent untold centuries battling the alien race and it was never-ending. Sofie couldn’t even begin to count the ways that she had died by the Fallen; she was lost enough in her thoughts that she startled when a loud beep emanated from the comm’s relay.

“It works.” Indy whispered and Sofie glanced at him sideways.   
“It sure does and it looks like its already picking up a signal.” Hawthorn added and Sofie straightened herself up and leaned in to listen to the incoming.


	4. The Hardest Parts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uploading this took forever because of technical issues with my computer.   
> I really enjoyed this chapter because some of the people I play Destiny 2 with regularly feature in this chapter.   
> I'm also looking forward to the next few chapters. There's a lot of unpacking, in terms of character pieces, that I'd like to do with a few characters coming up and how these events impact relationships and other things. I'm excited to be able to delve into some of these issues.

What she heard, however, wasn’t something she was entirely prepared for; if in fact, she had been prepared to hear anything at all. 

“Guardians of Earth, our City has Fallen. Our light stolen. We cannot win. We are rallying on Titan.” The message became garbled after that and then began repeating itself, but she knew exactly who that was: it was Commander Zavala’s voice but Sofie was in disbelief at what he was saying.   
“He left!” she shrieked; the disbelief clearly evident in her voice.   
“So much for being defenders of the last city.” Mumbled Hawthorn and Sofie felt an immense amount of rage begin to gather.   
“I’m heading back to the Farm.” Sofie whispered as she turned to Indy before vanishing in a swirl of light.

Indy could tell that his guardian was simmering with unreleased rage. They’d been partners long enough that he could tell when she was having trouble keeping her emotions straight.   
Once he had their ship in orbit, it didn’t take long for the huntress to let it all out.

“He left! What sort of commander is he if he’s just going to abandon us!” Sofie cried as she slammed her hands against the console of the ship.  
“Maybe he has his reasons. Maybe Isa knows.” Indy stated as Sofie glared at empty space around her.  
“Maybe. Zavala has always erred on the side of cowardice though. Twilight Gap is a good example of that.” She mumbled as Indy bobbed in front of her.  
“Shaxx could have gotten the entire city obliterated.” Indy mumbled as Sofie shook her head.   
“But that didn’t happen. It might have been a bit reckless, but it paid off. There’s a reason why guardians and civilians alike trust him. Shaxx isn’t afraid to make the dangerous moves when they’re needed. If we’d have all done what Zavala wanted, we’d all be dead by now.” She stated as she rested her elbow on the armrest of the pilot seat.  
“So? Back to the Farm then?” Indy asked and Sofie nodded. 

The flight wouldn’t take very long and Sofie knew that she was now being faced with a difficult decision. The transmission had stated that he, along with others possibly, had gone to Titan. Traveler only knew how old that transmission was and if any of them were still alive. She’d have to go to Titan to actually find out if anyone was still there. The problem was that she’d have to tell Isa and Jace where she was heading, and Isa would probably want to go with. Except that that was both incredibly dangerous and possibly incredibly stupid. There was also another problem. If she caved and took Isa with her to Titan; then Jace would be left alone at the Farm. Retrospectively, she could take Isa to Titan and then take Jace to wherever it was that they needed to go to get Ikora. If she did the two of them first, then could solo her trip to find Cayde. 

That actually didn’t sound like a bad plan. She was pretty sure that there were others they could call on to be leaders. She knew for a fact that both Jester and Lion were more than qualified to be Hunter leaders, so she made a mental note to track them down at the Farm to ask for their help. She was sure that Isa could find suitable leaders for the Titans as well. Deciding the idea was now her plan, Sofie prepped herself to explain the plan and subsequent goals to her teammates. 

“We’re on approach to the Farm. Have you figured out what you’re going to do?” Indy asked as Sofie nodded her head.  
“Pretty sure it isn’t going to be a hugely celebrated idea but it’s the best one that I’ve got.” Sofie replied as she starred at the quickly approaching treetops.   
“So, what’s your plan?” Indy asked as the ship flew into the transmat zone.  
“It’s a long story. Lets just wait till we meet with the others, okay?” she replied as she transmatted to the ground. 

There wasn’t a word said as Indy and Sofie appeared on the Farm. It was already dark out and while she desperately wanted to get the ensuing conversations out of the way; there was another part of her that was practically begging for her teammates to be asleep. That didn’t work out in her favor, however, as she saw the lights flickering in the windows of the house near the water that they’d commandeered as a command center. 

Silently as possible, she pushed the door open and peaked inside. Sofie was surprised to find Jace standing at the table, starring over the map with another warlock by her side. Across the table stood Isa and two other titans. At the left of the table stood Shaxx. The fourth side of the table was glaringly empty, and it was at that moment that she realized that the hunters were not accounted for at the table. Her subconscious argued that she should be angry, but she knew also that it was illogical to be upset over something that almost always happened. Hunters were often forgotten about when it came to managing people and making big plans. That never meant that they weren’t included in the actual participation, but Hunters weren’t really frontline fighters. Rather they stuck to the sides, and were usually tasked with surprise attacks, distance fighting like sniping, and scouting. Sofie had been around long enough to see it happen multiple time; almost every time really. 

“I’ll suppose that all the other hunters were busy?” she asked as the conversation around the table came to a stop and all eyes turned towards her.   
“Oh! We didn’t know you were back already.” Stated Jace and Sofie raised an eyebrow, a frown etching itself onto her face.   
“What did it matter if I wasn’t here, Jace? You could have asked Lion. Or Jester.” She replied as she moved from the doorway to the empty side of the table.   
“They both would have come if you had asked.” She added as she starred warlock dead in the eye. 

There was silence for a solid minute before Jace lowered her gaze and shook her head. In all honesty, she hadn’t thought about the hunters. She had come back into the command room with Montana and Isa had been waiting for her with Tank and Magi. They had gotten so busy discussing the incoming information and had only recently been interrupted when Shaxx had come to talk to them about the strength of the Crucible. It had ended up being more of a motivational sort of speech and they hadn’t been talking about a whole lot when Sofie appeared. Jace was still occupied with her own thoughts when Isa coughed to reclaim the attention. 

“She’s right. We should have included some of the hunters in our talks.” Isa stated as she turned to look at her hunter teammate.   
“Would you gather your fellows?” she added as Sofie shrugged before glancing back at the door. 

Moments later, two hunters burst through the door. The taller of the two was slightly out of breath and the other one in the pink cloak was silently shaking his head.   
“What happened?” asked Sofie as Jester, the taller hunter, flopped onto the sofa.  
“I tried to get here first and lost.” He mumbled, out of breath and Sofie raised an eyebrow as Lion, the pink cloaked hunter, wandered over to stand at the table with her.  
“So, Lion won then?” Sofie asked as she eyed the hunter on the sofa who looked exasperated.  
“He jumps a lot, okay?” Jester exclaimed and Sofie knew that that was true.

Beside her, she heard the other hunter chuckle and she knew it was all in good fun. 

“He should try to jump more.” Whispered Lion and Sofie giggled.   
“Can we get back to the matter at hand?” grumbled Jace as the three Hunters stood together at their side of the table.  
“Absolutely. Since the most important class is well represented now.” Jester replied; a cocky smirk on his face and Sofie knew he was trying to rile the warlock up.  
“Let’s continue, please.” Interjected Isa and there was silence around the table.  
“How did it go up at the comms relay with Hawthorne?” she added and now all eyes turned to the female hunter.   
“I guess it went well. Had to crawl through an entire mine full of Fallen before I could get up there though. Oh, and we even got an incoming message after we got it fixed.” Sofie stated as she leaned against the table.  
“You did? Anything useful?” asked Tank, the taller of the two titans on Isa’s side. 

At that point, Sofie refused to relay the message. Rather she turned to Indy, who bobbed in agreement before replaying the message out loud for everyone. There was a stunned silence amongst the gathered guardians as Indy played the message for a second time before his guardian cut him off.

“So, Commander Zavala has abandoned us?” Jace asked and, not for the first time as a team, Sofie and Isa glared at her.  
“Jace. I know we’ve all been through a lot lately but if you can’t quit this negative crap; then I’ll have to ask someone else to replace you as acting warlock vanguard.” Isa stated as she locked eyes with her younger teammate.   
“She isn’t entirely wrong, though.” Fae, the other titan, pointed out as Tank nodded.  
“I wouldn’t say he abandoned us though. He clearly said that he was planning a counter offensive on Titan, right?” Tank replied with a nod.  
“So what? You want to send people to Titan?” Carter asked as he crossed his arms and glared across the table at his Titan teammate.   
“Not people. Just two. I’m going to Titan and I’m taking Isa with me.” Sofie stated and there were surprised murmurs around the table.  
“You sound like you’ve already decided.” Jester stated as he starred down at the shorter hunter.   
“I have. I’m taking Isa to Titan.” She replied in a curt voice, a resolute expression on her face. 

There was further silence around the table and then, Shaxx nodded before turning and leaving the table. He wasn’t one of the Vanguard, but Isa had asked him to participate in the meeting for two reasons. One, because he was the highest-ranking senior guardian on the Farm and two, because she genuinely wanted his input. They were planning a major offensive after all and while Sofie and Isa had both been around at Twilight Gap, they weren’t master tacticians. In the end, they didn’t really need his guidance. Isa was one of Zavala’s highest-ranking Titans; a force to be reckoned with both on and off the battlefield. Jace was the highest-ranking on Ikora’s Hidden; enough so that she was actually more like Ikora’s understudy and would eventually be the next Warlock Vanguard. They were perfectly capable of managing the information that was incoming, they didn’t need his help right now. Besides, he had the Crucible to attend too.

Back inside the command room, the silence had become something a bit more. There was a certain sort of tension that had begun to develop before Jace simply turned and walked out of the room. For a moment, no one said anything until Isa let out a loud sigh.

“I’ll go with Sofia to Titan. Commander Zavala might have some information that we don’t. I’m making Tank my deputy commander, so he’ll be in charge of the Titans while I’m gone.” The awoken titan stated, turning to look at the awoken man beside her.   
“Alright.” The awoken titan nodded.  
“And since Jace is having some difficulties with the workload, I’m going to make Carter her second so that someone can take care of the Warlocks if she can’t.” Isa added as she turned her attention to the remaining warlock at the table.  
“If you need help, ask Jack-21 or Jack Chill.” She added, receiving an affirmative nod from the warlock.   
“I’m leaving Lion in charge of the hunters.” Sofie stated softly, exchanging a smile with the man standing beside her.   
“Jester can act as his second.” She added, nodding to the other hunter.   
“You can count on us.” Said Lion with a nod.

Content that everything was settled and would be taken care of, Sofia and Isa departed from the command room. There was more silence between them as they headed out to the jumpship that Sofie had acquired from Hawthorne. The silence persisted as they loaded up an extra crate of food for the trip to Titan. The trip would take at least a day with hyper-flight or possibly more if the hyper-drive crapped out. In all honesty, Sofie actually had no idea how solid the hyper-drive was since it didn’t take a hyper-flight to make it to Trostland. They were still running through a pre-flight checklist when Jace appeared at the ship.

“I want to go.” She stated, her voice resolute and her eyes glaring at the other two.  
“We can’t all go.” Replied Isa as she crossed her arms and starred back at the warlock with equal intensity.   
“We should go as a TEAM.” Growled Jace and the emphasis on the word team wasn’t missed by either the titan or the hunter.   
“You know it’s dangerous enough for me to even go since I don’t have any light. It could be totally catastrophic if you went.” Isa responded in kind; her voice deeper.  
“I’m going.” Jace snapped and Sofie moved to say something but Isa glared at her.  
“Warlock Jace Arrang. You hereby ordered to remain at the Farm and continue with the counterattack plans. That is a direct order from the commander.” Isa ground out, her voice sharp and authoritative. 

Jace looked like she might cry as Isa turned and strode onto the ship, leaving Sofie stunned in her wake. Desperate times often called for desperate measures and all three of them were now wielding power that had been assigned to them but had never actually been used. As the highest-ranking titan on the Farm, that technically made her the Commander of the guardians at the Farm and while she wasn’t Jace’s technical boss; to not obey the order would be akin to treason.

“Look. I’m taking Isa to Titan. When we come back; which we will, I’ll take you to find Ikora. We’ll probably be gone a few days; maybe a week or so. In the meantime, see if you can’t figure out anything about where she went.” Sofie stated as she stepped in front of Jace to prevent her from entering the ship.  
“Aside from Zavala and Cayde, I’m not sure there’s anyone who knows Ikora as well as you do.” She added as the warlock actually began to cry.  
“Be safe. We’ve already lost so many people.” Jace whispered as she moved forward and hugged the hunter. 

Sofie didn’t say anything as she returned the hug. Now wasn’t the time to say anything about the people they’d lost. Instead, she simply nodded and then turned around and walked into the ship; the door sliding shut behind her. Jace was upset and scared but, deep down, she trusted her team; they’d never really failed before or at least not to the point where someone’s life had been compromised. Sucking in a breath, she backed up and headed for the edge of the field so that the jumpship could take off. 

Back on the ship, Sofie settled into the pilot’s seat for a long flight. She was starting to regret even coming back to the Farm after leaving Trostland. Somehow, she should have known that Jace wasn’t going to handle this well. Somehow, she also felt like she should have expected Isa’s reaction. What she hadn’t expected was for the fighting to happen. She’d seen Isa and Jace butt heads before, but this was different. Isa had used her “commander voice” and Sofie had only heard her use that on the other Titans but never at her own teammates. On the other hand, Jace had been acting unusual as well. 

“Maybe its all of the stress.” Indy mumbled through their shared connection so that Isa couldn’t hear him.

Sofie didn’t reply as she buckled into her seat and glanced over at Isa. The titan was abnormally stony faced and Sofie heaved a sigh as she turned back to the controls; it was going to be a long flight. Indeed, they were well on their way to Titan when Isa finally spoke; that was several hours into the flight. Isa had moved back to the back of the ship. She’d been gone for the last several hours, and Sofie had had to send Indy to see if she was alright. 

“You alright?” Sofie asked as she turned her seat to look that the titan who was steadfastly ignoring her.   
“I’m fine.” Isa mumbled and Sofie raised an eyebrow as she rested her chin on her palm and leaned forward.  
“Really? I don’t believe it.” The hunter replied and the titan cast a sideways glare at her.  
“What do you want me to say? That I’m sorry for losing my cool with Jace earlier?” she snapped and Sofie shook her head.   
“it’s a start but no. There’s something else in there isn’t there?” Sofie asked and Isa knew that avoiding the subject would be worst in the long run.   
“I mean, yeah you did butt heads with Jace pretty bad earlier, but she really didn’t need to be on this mission, and she wasn’t listening. I get the feeling that you’re stressed out about what we’ll find on Titan.” The hunter continued and she saw a flash in Isa’s eyes that told her she was close to the issue.

Isa did not respond and after a few moments of thinking, Sofie leaned back in her seat and swiveled back around to stare out at the dark abyss of space around. Going to Titan had asked so many unanswerable questions. Neither woman had any idea of what they’d find when they finally landed. 

“Indy? Do you think the ship will survive a jump with the hyper-drive?” Sofie asked aloud and she didn’t have to look at her teammate to know that Isa was staring at her wide eyed.  
“Oh, we’ll definitely make it there. I can’t say the same thing about the return trip, though.” The little ghost replied and Sofie grinned when she heard Isa breathe a sigh of relief.   
“Let’s do this then.” The hunter stated and once she made sure that they were both buckled in, Indy took over the controls.

Titan is approximately 8.5475 AUs away from Earth; same neighborhood but not close at all. With a stable hyper-flight, or light-drive, the ensuing flight only took about an hour. Off on the far side, they could see the remains of the Dreadnaught still floating in its hollow space in Saturn’s rings. Farther ahead of them still sat the New Pacific Arcology and with it, the command center from which the signal had originated. 

“Here’s the plan. I’m going to go down there and try to make contact from the ground. You stay here and try to contact whoever you can find.” Sofie stated as she grabbed her hand cannon and fixed the cloak around her neck.   
“Hopefully Commander Zavala is still down there.” Isa whispered and for the first time since they’d faced Oryx, Sofie heard fear in her friends’ voice.   
“It’ll work out.” Sofie replied as she raised her arm in front of her. 

Isa starred at her before raising her arm and crossing it with Sofie’s. For a moment, they stood there with their arms forming a sort of x before Sofie transmatted away.


	5. Hive Attacks on Titan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Titan was once known for its Golden Age cities and technology. Neither Sofia or Isa have ever been to the moon of Saturn however. Rebuilding the Vanguard and mounting a counter-attack on the city takes a lot of work; mostly dirty work.   
> Covers the Titan storyline and their subsequent return to Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that the end of this chapter hints at the pairing/relationship between Cmdr. Zavala and Isa.   
> Also, this chapter doesn't have any trigger warnings.   
> Characters aren't specifically tied to Bungie belong jointly to me and their player. My clan is pretty chill with being included in this story, even if our name isn't out there.

Titans’ surface was covering in huge methane seas and it was always raining. While she had never been to the planet itself, she had heard stories of that the golden age cities remnants supposedly looked like. Somehow, however, she had forgotten about the constant barrage of rain as she landed on an outlying platform. Inside of her helmet, she heard the comms line crackle.

“Can you hear me?” Sofie asked as she looked around through the visor.  
“I can. Go ahead with first contact.” Isa replied, her voice coming through the comms line clearly.

Indy materialized at Sofie’s shoulder and began working on a scan of the area. On the other end of the line, Sofie could hear Isa talking recon with her own ghost. It was a familiar form of background chatter that brought a small amount of comfort to the task at hand. Sure, she had her light but missions that were filled with unknown variables often made the most dangerous jobs. 

“These platforms are sinking, so we better move.”   
“All available signals. This is City Hawk 7-3-0 and we’ve come to join the fight.” Stated Sofie, her voice calm and unwavering.

The comm line remained silent for a moment before the distinct sound of an incoming message. For a moment, it sounded like there were more than one person on the other end of the of the signal before the voice of the commander came through.

“No! We’ve already lost too many lightless guardians.” He stated, his tone imploring them to not venture any further.  
“Its alright Commander Zavala. We have our light back!” chirped Indy and Sofie glared at the little ghost.

There was silence on the line. To much silence for Sofie’s tastes. Waiting for further instructions, whether they were good ones or not didn’t seem to matter anymore. Breaking into a jog, she easily cleared the distance between the two platforms and was just narrowly able to miss a sliding container when she heard the line crackle back to life.

“What? That’s impossible.” Replied the Commander and Sofie shook her head.   
“Oh, believe me, Commander, it's true.” Isa added, her voice assured.  
“With all due respect Commander. Guardian’s, this is Lieutenant Commander Sloane. There is a major Hive infestation on the main platform where the command center is located. Wipe them out.” Interjected a new female voice and Sofie groaned internally. 

The Hive? Sofie hated the Hive. They were foul and vile creatures that thrived in the darkness and she’d tangled with them way more times than she could count. In her somewhat biased opinion, immense amounts of fire were the only way to appropriately deal with Hive but that thought was quickly quashed by Isa who reminded her that she couldn’t burn the command platform into the sea. It took nearly two more hours to clear out the remaining hive from the command platform. There was even a gross Hive hatchery that had even grosser egg sacs or something. She wasn’t even close to being done with clearing out the sac things when one exploded overhead. It exploded all over her hood and her cloak. There were multiple voices coming across the comms unit but Sofie had become a woman on a mission. Indy wasn’t sure where the excessive amounts of light came from but Sofie stormed through the remaining rooms with a golden gun that looked way more excessive that it really needed to be.  
By the time she was done, there were Hive corpses all around her feet and her chest was heaving from the exertion. Under normal circumstances; a golden gun only lasted for three to six shots. Indy reasoned that Sofia was under enough stress that her body was starting to utilize the Light in other ways. She’d been holding a tough façade since they left that camp outside the city, but he knew that deep down, she was suffering. As her ghost, he could often pick up on the subtle signs that she wasn’t alright. This time, however, he couldn’t tell. It was entirely possible that the gross hive sac exploding on her had made something snap inside, but he couldn’t be sure. 

“The Hive are toast. I’m moving in on the command center now.” Sofie ground out as Indy scanned and unlocked the door that was blocking their way.   
“Good job Hunter. We’re approaching the landing zone. Come on up and take a bow.” Sloane stated as Sofie made her way up the stairs and into the command room. 

The internal door was locked when she approached she had to go around outside and as she jumped up onto the platform, she was enveloped in a hug. Isa wasn’t wearing her helmet but she look incredibly relived as she gripped the hunter even tighter. 

“Dude! If you hadn’t noticed I’m covered in Hive slime. I’m gross.” Sofie groaned as she winced away from her titan teammate.   
“Gross but alive.” Isa replied and Sofie laughed  
“But the Hive aren’t. I guess that’s a fair trade, yea.” She mumbled and Isa laughed; like this was just the end of some random regular mission and not one where Sofie had literally risked life and limb to complete.   
“Ah hem, guardians.” Zavala interrupted causing both titan and hunter to jump.  
“Sorry Commander.” Mumbled Isa as she released her teammate and stepped back.  
“Don’t be so stuffy, Commander. This isn’t really a time for formalities or whatever.” Sofie replied as Indy transmatted her helmet and her cloak away. 

Isa shot her a glare and Sofie just shrugged in reply. She and Cayde had always joked, in privet of course, about how stuffy the commander was and how beneficial it would actually be for him to find a partner of some kind. Isa made the perfect fit in Sofie’s eyes and she wasn’t lying when she said it wasn’t the time for the formalities. They could die, they all could. 

“Regardless, we are in your debt hunter.” Zavala stated and Sofie raised an eyebrow.  
“I’m just doing what needs to be done and since I’m the only guardian with light available; I’m the one who has to do the dirty work.” Sofie replied as she scrunched her nose up as the Hive came to mind.   
“We’re still grateful guardian.” Stated Sloane, who had reemerged from the command room.  
“Not every guardian would choose to uphold their duty like you’ve chosen too.” She added as Sofie starred at her with wide eyes.

There was silence amongst the four of them because they all knew that the statement was true. The sense of ensnarement grew larger in Sofie’s chest as she turned to stare at the rolling waves of the methane seas. Did she really want to be here on Titan rescuing the Titan vanguard leader, their lieutenant commander and who knew who else? Of course not. She would much rather be back in her apartment working on some random piece of tech and listening to Cayde tell stories. Her thoughts started to become deeper and deeper when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Isa was standing next to her, hand on her shoulder and a weak smile on her face. 

“We’ll work through as much of this as we can, alright. We’ll be back home before you know it.” The titan stated as Sofie nodded her head.   
“If we’re going to do anything here, we need to restore power to these platforms.” Interjected Sloane as Isa shrugged.

That statement led to several days’ worth of missions and tasks that eventually accumulated to Sofie and Isa heading deep into the arcology to retrieve a high-power CPU that Holliday had determined was down there. In all, it was nearly two weeks before they were capable of returning home. Sloane had decided to stay on Titan to run their new command post there. All agreed that there was something very wrong with the amount of Hive that had inhabited Titan and that the entire moon would require further investigation should they ever get their light back. 

As she powered up the ship that would take them home, Sofie was immensely glad that Holliday had been one of the people that they had rescued on Titan. In the couple of weeks that they’d been on Titan, Holliday had managed to do a minor fix up on her ship. It wasn’t much but she’d done enough to ensure that the jump drive wouldn’t implode the next time they tried to use it. 

“Jace said she thought Ikora might have gone to Io. How far is Io from here?” Sofie asked Indy as the ship rumbled to life.   
“It’s about 4.3427 AU. Should I set a course?” The ghost asked as Sofie crossed her arms and Isa slid into the co-pilot seat.   
“Are we going to Io? I thought you told Jace she could go.” The female titan stated quietly and Sofie nodded though her gaze never left the front of the aircraft. 

Between the two women, there was silence. Sofie was running a lot of plans through her head trying to decide which plan would be not only the most economical but also the one that would be the most feasible. She had already told Jace that she could go to Io to search for her mentor. If Io was closer than Earth was from their current position, then it made absolute logical sense she disregard prior agreements and do what was more feasible. 

“We need to do what’s more feasible.” Sofie mumbled as she finally shifted her gaze and turned to look at the female titan sitting next to her.

There was a bit of silence before Isa sighed and shifted in her seat. Somewhere behind them, they heard the voices of Commander Zavala and Sloane talking before Zavala entered the ship and the rear entry hatch closed. 

“I thought hunters didn’t go back on their word.” Whispered Isa as Sofie retuned her gaze to the flight console. 

Sofie didn’t have a chance to say anything as her gaze remained permanently glued to the control panels and Isa eventually got up to move to the back of the ship. She wanted to be angry and for the most part, she was. Of course, hunters didn’t go back on their word; something she was starting to deeply regret. It was really the only thing that a hunter could be trusted on and it was more of an honor thing than it was anything else; a good hunter didn’t go back on a deal, a promise or Traveler help them, a dare. It was the reason why Cayde was the current hunter vanguard and why Andal had taken the vanguard mantel from Tallulah so long ago. She didn’t really like being called out on it. She didn’t like having her own honor thrown back in her face when the situation didn’t really call for it but she knew that this whole thing would go more peacefully if she stuck to the original plan.

“City Hawk 7-3-0… requesting permission for lift off.” Sofie stated as she began flipping the switches for takeoff.  
“Go ahead City Hawk. Traveler speed.” Sloane to her replied as Sofie buckled the last strap on her seat and grabbed the controls.   
“I hope everyone is buckled up back there because here we go!” cried Sofie as she pulled back on the controls and the ship was airborne in seconds.   
“Dammit Sofia!” cried Isa as Sofie let loose with a loud laugh. 

Elsewhere in the back of the ship, Isa was recovering from her fall. When they’d taken off, Sofie hadn’t bothered to say anything, and as such, neither she nor the Commander had been properly belted in when they’d blasted off. Which had resulted in quite an embarrassing situation as Isa had landed squarely in the commander’s lap.

“Ya’ll alright back there?” called Sofie as the ship straightened out.  
“We’re about to enter jump space so you might wanna buckle up. Now’s really not the time for canoodling and stuff.” She added as Isa stepped up beside her and punched her in the shoulder.  
“Ay! No violence titan!” Sofie cried as she glared at the female titan who was now buckling into the o-pilot seat.  
“Maybe you’ll keep your damn comments to yourself then.” Isa grumbled and Sofie shook her head.   
“That’ll never happen.” The hunter replied as she flashed a cheeky wink back at the commander who was now sitting in the jump seat.   
“Guess we’ll head back to Earth. Probably should get back to the Farm anyway and see what sort of disaster has befallen our cohorts.” She added, though she received a second punch to the arm.  
“Enough.” Isa growled and Sofie shook her head. 

Nothing more was said as Indy initiated the jump drive and after an uneventful hour or so flight, they were back. They broke Earths atmosphere and Sofie flipped the incoming signal receiver over to short range as they crossed into the airspace over old Russia. 

“Indy prepare an outgoing signal to Stallion and Nyx.” Sofie instructed as they crossed over the Cosmodrome.   
“Nyx isn’t responding. Stallion has a clear line open for us. Would you like to send a message?” Indy asked and Sofie nodded.   
“Tell Shaxx we’ve gotten the Commander back and we’ll be back before the day is over.” Sofie stated as she pulled the controls to avoid a Fallen ketch.

Indy relayed the message and when they arrived back at the Farm a few hours later, Shaxx was waiting for them. He wasn’t the only one, though. They hadn’t been on the ground for more than a few minutes when a crowd had gathered. It seemed like all of the guardians had come out to see their commander, something that neither Isa nor Sofie had been entirely prepared for. However, not all of them had come out in support. There were guardians in the crowd who were shouting angrily as Zavala stood in front of the crowd.

“That’s enough of that noise, now.” Called a voice from near the back of the crowd as Tank appeared from near the back of the crowd.   
“Quit bitching and let the commander through.” He added as the crowd parted slightly but didn’t disperse.  
“Don’t you all have work to do?” asked another voice, this one belonging to a warlock named Jack Deadfall.  
“Look. Any and all complaints can be directed to either Isa, Jace or I. If that doesn’t suit you, then don’t say anything.” Sofie shouted, her voice just barley louder than the crowd’s volume. 

It took several more minutes before the crowd finally dispersed. Isa practically dragged Zavala down to the command room, leaving her teammate and fellow guardians behind. 

“A thousand glimmer says they shack up after we beat the Cabal.” Whispered Jace as she glanced sideways at Sofie.  
“Two-thousand glimmer says that they shack up way before that; maybe by the end of the week.” Stated Jack-21, another warlock who was now standing next to Tank.   
“You guys are nuts. I’ll raise you to five thousand and I bet they’ll not only have shacked up by tomorrow, but I bet they’ll confess that they care about each other too.” Sofie mumbled as she shook her head before motioning for them to follow her.

She suspected that neither of them would be in the command room and when the group arrived, she was proven correct when they discovered that only Jester and Lion were in the room. Of course, Jester was asleep on the wrecked sofa and Lion was sitting on the floor dangling a piece of string in front of one of the cats that roamed the Farm. Their arrival was less than subtle as they all made quite a bit of noise.  
“You’re back. I thought that you took Isa with you?” stated Lion as he stood up from the floor and turned to face the crowd of guardians who had come barging into the command room.   
“She did. Bought the commander back too.” Stated Tank as the assembled guardians began to take their places around the table.   
“Yeah. He got dragged off though.” Mumbled Jace as several people around the table snickered.   
“So, what’s been going on since Isa and I left?” Sofie asked and the tone around the table became somber and serious. 

There were a lot of side eye looks and exchanged glances as Sofie crossed her arms and surveyed the group before her. She knew that whatever it was that had happened probably hadn’t been good. Jester, the hunter who had been sleeping on the sofa, woke up at that moment.

“We lost six guardians that were escorting a civilian caravan to the Farm.” Jester stated and there was silence amongst the group as Sofie’s frown deepened.   
“And what information we’ve begun to gather isn’t looking good either.” Added Lion and there were agreeing nods from around the table. 

So, they went on. Each little group talked about what had occurred at the Farm since Sofie and Isa’s departure. They talked about the good things that had happened; how more and more people were coming to the Farm. They also had to talk about the not so good things that had happened. A group of newer guardians, who hadn’t been Risen for very long before the attack, had been caught stealing supplies and food from the Farm storage area. Without the Vanguard, they’d turned to Shaxx for judgment. In turn, Shaxx had advised that they consult their current remaining stand-in vanguard. AS it turns out, Jace hadn’t made a very good leader at all. According to what Sofie was hearing, Jace had basically frozen up and been unable to make adequate decisions so, Jack D. and Montana had agreed to split the duties until a suitable replacement could be found. 

“Well I think you’ve all done a great job.” Sofie stated as she crossed her arms and nodded.   
“We can talk about everything else when the Commander finally gets here. Why don’t you tell us about what happened on Titan.” Jester stated and Sofie’s eyes shifted from the group to the table.   
“Titan was wet, very wet and Hive, there were a lot of hive.” She grumbled as some of the group snickered. 

They were all looking for a story and Sofie cracked a tiny grin. She was a storyteller and she enjoyed telling tales; either her own or the tales of others. So, she did. She told them all about the moon. It rained constantly and the once golden age cities were overrun with Hive and now Fallen. They talked about the condition of the moon and what the current plans were. She was just about to start in on the enemy transmissions they had received when her Indy bumped her gently. 

“We should really wait for the commander before you start in on that stuff.” Indy stated and Sofie realized he was right.   
“He’s right. Commander Zavala should explain the other stuff, not me.” Sofie stated as she stretched her arms above her head and then yawned.   
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Dismissed guardians.” Sofie stated with another yawn and a giggle as her fellow guardians all nodded and said their goodnights before filtering out of the room. 

Once the door was closed, Sofie wandered over to the now unoccupied sofa and sank onto it. It was much warmer on Earth than it was on Titan and for the last several nights, Sofie had been sleeping on a terribly cramped bunk on her ship because of it. In other words, she was exhausted. 

“So what happened Jace? I thought you were excited to be in charge finally?” Sofie asked as she leaned back on the sofa and starred at the awoken woman who stood across the room.  
“I am! I don’t know what happened.” She cried and Sofie raised an eyebrow at the outburst.  
“Look. Its totally ok to say that you don’t know what you’re doing. Its also alright to ask for help if you don’t know what you’re doing. Especially when we’re experiencing a shit storm like this.” The hunter replied as she stretched out across the sofa.   
“Even Ikora had to ask questions at one point. At least she did until Osiris was exiled. Now, we’ll probably leave for Io sometime tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a bit of extra supplies before e we go.” she added, crossing an arm over her eyes and falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scene with the hive gunk exploding all over Sofie was inspired and taken from something that happens in the Pit of Heresy dungeon on the Moon. Once you finishing the Chamber of Suffering challenge, you'll have to shoot the giant hive sac blocking your way forward. When it explodes, the player can see yellow drops splattering and running down their screen. This always grosses me out and I honestly can't stand the Hive in general so... that's where this came from.


End file.
